(for the writers who come from all over
the world to write with me online)

How we chafed, stuck inside,
reduced, we fumed, to communicating
only with those in our living spaces

and faces of others we were missing
locked in tiny rectangles on this
newfangled online doorway.

How long did it take us to realize
the magic of the portal into people’s
lives? To see, if they allowed us to,

the rooms in which they sat,
their smiles, weary of confinement,
delighted to reach through

this gateway in cyberspace
and catch, often more closely
than if we were in person,

the crinkles around their eyes
when their faces blossomed
taking in our own. That we

were allowed such ingress
into the intimate spaces
of others, at such a difficult

moment, seemed miraculous,
even as we chafed under
the constraints. To continue

the opening even now, in times
when there is such distance,
real or imagined, between us,

that’s wondrous—the delight
of seeing your faces, expectant,
hopeful, watching mine,

joy swelling my cheeks as if
filled with precious nuts,
with luck, enough to last me

through winter.