Semantic Bleaching

created in part with images from Unsplash by: Eduardo Soares; James Barr; Sharon McCutcheon; Matt Jones

“Life on hold sucks!”
read the bus shelter ad.

They meant the pandemic
I suppose

But what a wry, ironic understatement
If you think of the awesome reality of life on hold.

{That’s awesome in its original meaning
Of inspiring ecstasy and terror, the experience
That the Romantics called the sublime
And…