There are a number of paradoxes and tensions at play in our collective response to the coronavirus pandemic. First of all, we usually come together in times of crisis for mutual aid, for solidarity, to give and receive support, but now we must express these things by staying apart, by limiting physical closeness to our family, if we are lucky enough to have a family. Secondly, this test of our humanity requires us to sacrifice so much of what is integral to our humanity: immediacy, embodied presence, human warmth, and touch. Thirdly, some of the vulnerable people whom we are making sacrifices to protect are vulnerable due to policies that have led to their neglect. Finally, there is the tension, which I hope in the course of this poem becomes a fruitful dialogue that blurs the lines between the personal and the communal: someone I love is grieving and the whole human family is grieving. I hope this poem holds all of these things for anyone who reads it.