NOVEL 19

Look at the birds of the air – they do not sow or reap or store away in barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? -Jesus

uncertainty hangs in the air clinging to cloaked silhouettes on sidewalks a thick blanket of fog hides the city skyline CN Tower - our Babel by Bay Street - disappearing behind walls of falling tears what was once familiar becomes foreign sight disappears beyond the edges of outstretched arms respiratory droplets dominate our thoughts attacked by an unseen enemy preying upon the peripheries anxious anchors exacerbate our fears as headlines send us headlong into the aisles hoarding our rapidly escaping sense of control - however look at the birds of the air - they do not sow or reap or store away in barns

experts have their extrapolations politicians have their plans eighty-two billion and counting

staving off the starving masses but “we’re much better at modelling things that people don’t react to” too many unknowns multiplied by too many curves to flatten let alone plank — toes planted, elbows grounded — we grasp for our core and yet your heavenly Father feeds them

rubbing nickels between our fingers fretting the falling market and precarious employment S&P GDP NASDAQ TSX West Texas Intermediate crude the suits shout apocalypse tumbling exchanges slump our shoulders a collective cascading of worth wrapped up in debt-driven desire lost in the endless pursuit is a final resting place the question of real import lying dormant are you not much more valuable than they

from the huddles of half-asleep humanity inertia’s tug of war yanks on our power cords avert reversion enter the kairos moment as sun rays strike earlier and sleeping gardens awake in the quiet of quarantine niggling nears to gnawing as the Teacher’s questions creep towards the light fuschia tepal blooms fight through the fog the magnolia’s brilliance a burst of clarity exposing the naked beauty that awaits within the sure yet fleeting days of Spring can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life

* Quote: Jonathan Dushoff, a biologist at McMaster University in Hamilton who has been studying the spread of COVID-19, in the Globe and Mail on March 16, 2020.

Written by: Scott Moore | Illustrated by: Landon Wideman Read more at: thesemoments.ca

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