And then once inside
They worried, they cleaned, they complained
Governments which did nothing, or did too much
They shopped, they hoarded, they cooked, then mostly they worried
Even if someone somewhere  in a country far from theirs
Choked, helpless science staring,  the lungs filling up as if with thick clay,
They checked numbers of the dead every day
They thought of those they’d liked but hadn’t  said, or met
As they stood further away from each other, they missed the touch of skin
They took to the virtual world called each other just to see , even on a laptop screen
They planted, robust trees bursting through, they cared like they had never before
They thought of the old, the doctors, the nurses,  the homeless, the heroes
And  the homeless, they  rose! Suddenly the streets were free and theirs, they were taken in
they could walk in to the grand empty edifices, we are all together in the same skin

 Yet somewhere in wet markets, animals still raged , somewhere a snake, a pangolin uncurling
The devout worshipped, they prayed, they clapped, looking at others do in a continuous frenzy
Forgetting that in Nature’s world, the order is not of a benevolent mother
In the animal world, only  the fittest survive, when we don’t live why should you?
Why should revenge not come to you, in the air you breathe, in the lives you lead?

The people saw all they had built was nothing, all that they were proud of was not helping
They had to go back, back to lifestyles years ago, reinvent, create, repurpose
They had to rethink, inside their homes they had to think long and deep
 If suddenly everything is taken away-
What do you do. Who do you become. Who is with you. Who is you. You.