Our new blog series—inspired by the Berlin International Women’s Club’s own—posts writings from our members that reflect on our lives during the time of #Coronavirus #stayathome. Send us your story by emailing blog@awcberlin.org

AWC Berlin member Bridget Shaughnessy has shared her thirteen-year-old daughter’s rich and evocative two-part poem, “A Moment in Time.” Read, reflect, and come back next week for the second part, “Emotions.”

A Moment in Time, Part 1

by Elia Shaughnessy

It is March 2020,
The world is so quiet you can hear a pin drop.
Yet buzzing with noise, with thoughts, with words—
Snap.
For a moment, time stops.

You are now spectating a world that is your own,
Every word, every song,
Is now only seen from your computer or phone.
Tension floods every household,
Panic accompanies a single sneeze,
Paranoia hangs in the air like cigarette smoke,
All in contrast with the blooming flowers and newfound spring breeze.

Theatres are deserted,
No stranger is closer than six feet apart,
Breath held, people wait, painstakingly,
For the curve to flatten on that god-forsaken chart.

Somewhere, from afar, someone is wishing their friend a happy birthday,
But the word happy falls flat.
Someone else doesn’t even know what is happening, somewhere remote, far, far away.
A mother forces hand sanitizer on an irritated child’s messy hands,
A teenage girl, from her bedroom, sings along quietly to her favorite band.

In this very moment in time,
Do we realize how vast the great world we live in truly is?
And how precious our moments are?
Snap.
Life starts back up once again.

But really,
When we think about it,
When will life once again truly begin?