After the Body Remembers

Then the virus came. And left. But it did not leave us unchanged.

3 artist survived; carrying permanent damage, and each one's loss strikes at the very center of how they navigate the world. Most share a common hearing loss in a one ear, the other wore glasses for the first time after a lifetime of twenty-twenty vision.

One can no longer smell rain on dry earth, coffee in the morning or the skin of a loved one.

One lives with a heart that stutters and a floor that will not stay still. Balance, once automatic as breathing, now requires conscious effort. Falling is no longer a possibility. It is a daily appointment.