Epi Bodhi, Amherst, MA, Straw Dog Member, has been writing poetry since she was young. In the third grade, she was accused of plagiarism for her poem snowflake. Her love for writing, particularly memoir poetry, has been reawakened since joining the Writer’s Group that meets regularly at Pioneer Valley Cohousing.
2020 Hindsight
What if hindsight really is 2020?
And the post pandemic world is a better world?
Where we all spend more time at home in our pajamas?
Eat meals cooked slowly from foods long forgotten in our freezers and pantries.
Where families and long-lost friends are more important
than what is newest and brightest.
Where things are more equalized
and we all have enough.
No more pictures of starving children, refugee boats and camps.
And Peace reigns.
No more heads of states behaving like despots.
Amassing wealth and pitting one group against another.
Many women leaders.
Jacinda Ardern would win the Nobel Prize and be held up as an example
of great leadership under crisis
and many would turn to her to learn how to lead.
Corporations would no longer have the privileges of people
but would behave more humanely.
Some would be run by boards.
Others by collectives.
Many would work from home.
Public health would be given the importance it deserves
and more energy would be put into creating conditions
for all to be healthy.
Race would be an historical construct
and we would no longer use it as an identifier upon meeting someone
and could enjoy the rainbow that we are.
What if when we look back on the events of 2020,
we are saddened by the too many lives lost
But thankful for the wake-up call to look at the world anew
To see that we are one people on one planet
that have no choice but to stumble together