Dear Editor,Can we rise from this blow also? Can we tiptoe away from these ominous towns of dreadful lockdowns and reports of woe? Can we?

Can we walk this delicate tightrope of gaping health risks on the left and economic ruin on the right? Can we navigate this viral storm outside our national radar, as we grope blindfolded with masks, between the need for making a living and the increased risks it is now posing? Can we?

Can we rise from this carnage still, away from the fears of a global accident that’s keeping us at a distance? Will we rise from the wreckage of our time and leave this all behind as the tortuous ashes from which we’ve climbed? Can we?

Can we escape this blow yet as we wrestle with death and face ourselves in retrospect, with each morning adding new cases and evenings claiming newer faces — between fears and tears — between knowing not where to turn and blindly clutching through the darkness? Can we?

Can we cross this bridge, where freedom of health is shoving for space with freedom of wealth, between hope and renewal, between the rising sounds of silence and increasing wails. Can we?

Can we therefore tiptoe between the viral raindrops, while we journey also to the top, as we embrace this fate as memory and as wisdom, the road ahead? Can we?

Homer SylvesterMount Vernon, New York, USAh2sylvester@gmail.com