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?

Written by Scott Moore
Illustrated by Landon Wideman

Inspired April 2020