After the Worst Is Over, Before the World Comes Back

To slightly paraphrase John Lanchester,
Relief is the most blesséd emotion,
If not the most powerful, as he claims.

When the source of the trauma is removed,
When the most terrible danger is past,
When the worst fire of the pain has eased up,

There’s balm in the pause, a passage through calm,
As if all menacing walls had fallen.
There’s no awareness that’s any sweeter.

If it’s not the most powerful, it is
Only in that relief has no borders,
Is not a game, and so the world creeps back.