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Ex Uno, Plures

4/2/2020

2 Comments

 

E Pluribus Unum

By Caitlin Hawke

Neighbors, I feel more connected to you than ever. I can barely hear you. Can't see you, except at 7 p.m. when you fling open your sash.  But you are beautiful at the top of that hour. And your cri de coeur is mine, too.

I've been thinking about how we got here. 

Out of one, many. That's for the pangolin, or whichever creature this zoonotic nightmare leaped forth out of and upended the lives of billions.

Out of many, one. That's for us. U.S. This country, with all its fault lines and political red and blue blocks is, for better or for worse, now 'one' in a way it hasn't been since 9/11. The sooner we embrace that, the stronger we'll emerge from this catastrophe. Roughly a month in, it's not a moment too soon. But it's not just domestic. Our family of man is global. Have you ever felt the purely human connection across borders and societal divides more profoundly? And yet, here we all sit. Alone. Out of many, one.

When we come through to the other side, when we have metabolized how we have behaved, how we were led, for better for worse, who we have lost, and how we'll go on, we had better reckon with the Anthropocene. We're so busy saving ourselves, we've forgotten that the real work ahead is to save our planet.

And if we can do this, surely we can do that.

Reservoir
by Caitlin Hawke
Picture


Scales of keratin, claws well honed.
Searching for ants, by night you roam.

O! Manis pentadactyla,
How very odd a fact to know

That your flesh cures hysteria,
Fevers brought of malaria.

Medicinal to sapiens
Yet viral poison lays within,

O! Mighty plated Pangolin
What ball you have us crouching in!

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2 Comments
Terence
4/3/2020 09:28:16 am

Although some members of our block association may have chosen to wait this out at their 2nd home, those of us remaining sure sound strong at 7pm from my window at 865 WEA!

Reply
Jimmy Roberts
4/3/2020 09:44:48 am

Thanks, Caitlin. “E Pluribus Unum” is one of your best and most heartfelt. Not to mention your pithy pangolin poem!

Reply



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