The birds still sing

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Despite the fear seeping under the door of my apartment,
I still wake up to the coos of a mourning dove
She lives in the dryer vent above my bedroom window, oblivious.

When I stop drowning the silence with my television
And sit outside instead and try to read for classes
Despite struggling to care about anything
I notice that although the parking lot is empty
There are still clouds in the sky.
Because the world keeps turning
Somehow people in east campus are still celebrating spring
By gathering with beers in someone’s front yard
(it’s easy to think you’ll live forever when you’re barely 21)
I don’t understand it
I feel stuck
But I think that worse than the disease that has
Paralyzed us all
Is the disease that we’ve been carrying for years
Of a complete lack of compassion for other people

 

35% of households with children don’t have enough food 

Almost 1 in 5 children goes hungry regularly

Unemployment is currently paying more than many jobs

But only because of the CARES Act

You see, unemployment normally is designed to keep you in poverty
And states are re-opening partially because they want to kick people off of it

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Not to sound like a Bolshevik
But telling the many people who are out of work right now

That it is their fault if they can’t find a job
When so many others are also looking
And no one is really hiring
And we haven’t lost this many jobs since the great depression 

Makes me want to overthrow the government
Because it is very frightening to be young
When we are all drowning in debt
And will be for the rest of our lives
And starting our careers in a recession
Means that we will forever earn less than
Those who do not.

 

But even that feels meaningless
People are dying
And it feels like no one notices.
3000 people dead yesterday, today, and probably tomorrow.

I’m scared. But the birds still sing.