restitution

Quiet tip-toes through the barren streets
are paved in cold
Still air frostbit folds its arms
While sun is steady taking back the day
Empty are our roads,
all vehicles and folks at bay.

Like a fascist army COVID had its way.
Isolation’s call to arms
baring witnesses –
Watching on their tiny screens they’re nude
Stripped bare of courage by the news
Like a billion naked emperors
flashing walls and locked doors
with exposed genitals and boobs.

With the dawn the rallied night watch stirs
We are summoned like the multitude
Marching single file we sing
Clanging down abandoned streets
hope and freedom ring.
We have not forgotten how to fight –
We know darkness melts in light.
The planks our bloodied Lord had execution made
are spears in sickness’ belly:
We demand the trade.

Let Christ have,
for Christ has paid.

Unafraid.
Down the walls of fear, we shout!
Fear and sickness lose their welcome
Providence and wealth will come when
Saints and families share communion, and
Ink and love and painting flow,
Heaven’s renaissance below.

Restitution will abound
In once too-quiet streets the lost be found.
In once abandoned streets, they’re found.