Haibun: The Day Before COVID

It’s coming up on three years since I walked the alpine paths of Bryce Canyon National Park. I was on a trip with my cousin to see Zion, Bryce, and Arches in a week. This particular day, March 11, 2020, he stayed back to finish some homework and to rest and I spent my day walking the edges along the parks high points. Occasionally passing a person and waving, mostly it was just me thinking, talking to myself, reflecting, and looking at all the different ways the rocks ended on each other. It was remarkably peaceful up above the world, so high up it looked as if I was above a snowstorm that was covering a part of the valley with white. I have never smiled and pointed so much at a snow storm before.

That night, the tensions would start to grip the world as the NBA suspended play because the then Utah Jazz center, Rudy Gobert, tested positive for COVID-19. After Arches, we drove through a deserted Las Vegas. By time we arrived home, the world was out of toilet paper. That day was the most care free I’d feel for a very long time.

elevated over

a passing valley snowstorm,

alpine stroll through Bryce