I wrote this in November 2020, a day or two after a dear high school friend passed away. In school, we were almost inseparable. After graduation, we went our separate ways and didn’t stay in touch. His death brought back many high school memories blended with the sadness of a life cut short.
I intended to post a pithy comment to our graduates’ social group about how “this year sucks” because, well, 2020 was horrible. But this poem came out instead. For a few days, I shared it under the title This Year Sucks. I changed that about a week later when I thought about reading it years from now and wanting to preserve the suck of this 2020 moment. It was at that point that the banal “Ode to 2020” title became Odious 2020, and since that truly summed it all up, it stuck.
I’m only an occasional poet. I used to write song lyrics in my 20s when I fronted a band in New York City. Perhaps I write more poetry than most people but only barely these days. I used to be good for a poem a year, but that’s devolved to a poem every several years. So, in those special moments when a poem decides to emerge, I simply take notes.
A normal time,
A regular time,
is when
seasons move through our lives
and we ignore them.
Our children move through the seasons
and we applaud them.
The greater good
and the baddest bad
circle around, always.
Kept at bay
Kept away,
by the love, from family,
from friends.
By the love we project.
The love we accept.
It’s a force of nature that protects
us.
Them.
And the beautiful bonds between us.
All of us.
This year
love needs us more
and we need more love
We have it
We always will.
We do it.
We always do.
Just outside the boundary,
the layer of love around us,
more than ever before . . .
This.
Year.
Sucks.
Mike, thank you for sharing your soul with us for a fraction of a moment in time.
My heartfelt prayers to your family for their loss. God bless, keep you safe and help you find the strength you’ll need to move forward.