Pandemic, meaning all people.
Pandemonium, meaning
all demon. Pandora,
meaning all-gifted.
Pan, meaning god
of nature. All people
have meaning, are all-
demon, all-gifted. It is in
our divine nature. We now
appreciate that Pandora’s box was a jar
left ajar, a pithos (to tell the mistranslation,
then, is to risk being remembered by its fiction),
meaning a storage container for grain, oil, wheat
& even the dead. We all need places to lay down
our grief. Where else to put it. That vessel held
all plague, all pain & all hope. Don’t panic.
Instead, turn to a companion. What are we
if not the curiosity to open the coffins
we carry, who are we if not
all the things we let loose.