The Beautiful and the Good

“Another thing
about this weird predicament
we are in,”

writes Daniel Weinstock,
on Facebook: “Total loss
of any sense of time.

Going to bed whenever,
getting up whenever.
As the Velvets put it,

a little wine in the morning,
and some breakfast
at night.”

Alas, Daniel’s got my number
—yours too, I imagine.
But he doesn’t have my sixteen-year-old’s.

Indie is an artist who sticks
to a rigid schedule of training and study,
rain or shine, come what will.

He’s been getting up at six every day—
eating sensibly, exercising regularly—
and going to bed before ten every night,

as if this whole pandemic thing
were little more than a blizzard,
which has been so kind

as to keep him
home from school
for a spell.

Indie’s lofty disinterest
in the daily COVID-19 news
brings to mind Nietzsche’s

lofty disdain for current events:
“Live in ignorance
of what seems most important

to your age!”
And Aaron Haspel’s:
“News is noise.”

Like an apple tree
blossoming in the middle
of a battlefield,

Indie continues
to produce beauty
without a care in the world.

While others hoard toilet paper,
my seventeen-year-old son,
Tristan, and his friends

have organized a babysitting service
for working parents whose kids are at home
because of all the school closures.

My beloved sons have each, in their own way,
reminded me of what makes life worth living:
the beautiful and the good.

Wherefore by their fruits
during the pandemic
ye shall know them.

—John Faithful Hamer, Social Distancing (2020)