Time For Regrets

This poem was written for "Shadows and Light Poetry Contest" 

Time for Regrets

Time on our hands these days
not knowing when the beginning quite started
or the ending might loom
or even how it will end in May or June, July?

Never appreciating the little things as much as we should have
choices like to go to the store or stay home
freedom to travel out without being afraid all the time
maybe we should have felt the fear but we didn't, not like this

Reluctant to go out without a mask, what's next?
Crime is way down in this city
as everyone is home guarding the fort
Nothing is open to rob and no one has more than the next

Envy has taken a holiday,
wishing cold blooded things like "boomer remover"
had never been heard by these ears
Well, it's a time of home truths and bitter pills and dwindling toilet paper...

Also a time of great love and kindness
Not like children not checking on their parents because of old grudges wrongly embraced
Hollow generation of the selfish stuck at home, looking in the mirror
as we all find a reckoning somehow, and face the unknown

Have to go out to get groceries or the package at the door
Will this be the day that the virus gets us?
When it happens will it be quick and even at home or screaming for the last ventilator...
or will there be time for regrets when we are no longer here to notice what isn't done

and doesn't matter anymore because the smart phones are buzzing
and it's for you, but no one's there to answer or even text, imagine that?
and the store shelves are still empty and you don't get that birthday card this year
and toilet paper is more precious then gold to those who have lost their way...

28 Lines