Before Corona
This scanning electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2 (orange)—also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus that causes COVID-19—isolated from a patient in the U.S., emerging from the surface of cells (green) cultured in the lab. Credit: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases-Rocky Mountain Laboratories, NIHWe pretended as though there were activities we would never live without.
Now there is a drop in carbon emission in China,
Water bodies will now heave a sigh of relief for a while.
Before Corona we pretended as though we were not equal,
as though we did not share a common humanity.
Corona came, and all precautions are the same,
all efforts at producing a vaccine are done
for human beings: not merely for whites
not for Hispanics,
not for black people
But for Human Beings: The people at the borders who are not allowed in,
the ones with the right documents and the ones without the right documents
Before Corona we pretended as though human beings have answers to every question
Even the deepest questions about God.
We had immobile philosophies to which we were tethered.
We claimed to have fully understood God.
Well, Corona took theologians unawares,
Sent scientists racing to their laboratories,
without being sure of any results.
Corona brought politicians to acknowledge that God knows better.
When humanity adamantly leaves no room for doubts,
fate imposes those rooms.
Before Corona we thought we were not vulnerable.
We lived on what we knew and had,
we said human beings were unquestionably the greatest of species.
Ask the animals we ate for food.
Their movements are not restricted.
Ask the birds in the air whether their flights have been cancelled.
Ask them whether they have any need to wash their hands.
Before corona we thought that money could do everything
We thought that the rich were “humans” and the poor were “species”
And suddenly we are “Human Species”. Together.
So it is actually true that there are things we cannot afford.
So it is true that there are situations that money cannot change.
Before Corona we thought that time was always against us.
We were ever in a haste, catching flights and rushing off to do something.
Corona came, many hours have come and gone, unused.
We can now quietly observe the rising of the sun.
Flower shrubs, the unwary stars of the night.
We can now talk about the weather.
Before Corona we thought that effort was everything.
We thought people suffered illnesses because they deserved it.
We stigmatized HIV and AIDS, maybe we thought it was the gay disease
We always felt oblivious when cancer was mentioned,
because cancer was not in our families.
We thought Corona had come to reward unbelievers in a terrible way.
When it came to China we said it was because they were too secular
and needed to surrender to God.
Corona got into the Vatican, then we fell silent, in prayer
But we pretended as though what we felt was not cluelessness.
Schools closed. Churches closed. Offices closed.
Some kids can now have the attention of their busy fathers.
At least for three weeks.
Corona came and kept people from what they owned,
and owned people away from what they kept.
Corona came, and friends no longer shook hands.
But enemies are now united by another common enemy.
We are suddenly friends because we share a common tragedy.
This common enemy that renders economic rivalry irrelevant.
Corona came wicked and just.
Corona came and proved itself inclusive,
And non-judgemental, in the way that death is.
Corona came to remind us that there are things we get without deserving,
And there are things that we deserve without getting.
Corona is a timely reminder about two things:
The many flamboyant things that we are not
And the vulnerable things that we really are.
Corona will leave us. But its legacy might stay, would stay.
And we would no longer be ridiculously sure about anything
As we were.
Before Corona came.
