Only these brief moments of exchange

Small Kindnesses by Danusha Laméris starts like this:

I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk
down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs
to let you by. Or how strangers still say “bless you”
when someone sneezes, a leftover
from the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying.

This seems an appropriate poem to read and reread today. Yesterday while the mob attacked our government 3,915 Americans died of COVID-19. Today, more than 4,000. The day is not done.

Here's a link to the poem. 

Wear your mask. Be safe. Be kind. Don't die.