I sent a few holiday cards this year — first time in, I don't know, forty-six years or so — to friends that I hadn't been able to see in person in at least the last three months. Along with a personal message, I included this sonnet. Hope you enjoy it:
Just like that moment two breaths become one
Expands to fill a sweet eternity,
Yet when you part, the intimate kiss done,
Discover just how fleeting time can be,
So has the time from when a friend departs
To when that friend returns with smiling cheeks
Been counted both this year in beating hearts
And neverending, silent, lonely weeks.
This year — this scourge — has stolen way too much,
In time, in health, in possibilities.
But what we value most it must not touch:
That thing that binds our chosen families.
And so we must, before December ends,
Carve out some time to send our love to friends.