Plague Poems – The Hundred-and-Fourteenth Week

At first
a hundred deaths
was unthinkable
then
a thousand deaths
was unthinkable
then
ten thousand deaths
was unthinkable
then
a hundred thousand deaths
was unthinkable
then
a million deaths
was unthinkable
and we are on our way
towards the number
that today
is still unthinkable.

*

The newspaper’s headline asks
how it is
that this could have happened
how it is
that more than a million could die
these questions do not have
simple answers
but the columns and editorials
that appeared regularly
in these same newspapers
are a part of that answer.

*

Tragic
though a million deaths
undoubtedly are
you must not get too caught up
in that horrid number
for to speak now
of only a million dead
is to ignore all of those
who have died
after that milestone was passed.

*

There must be a long story
for why you are terrified
of turtles.

There must be an odd explanation
for why floating seaweed
frightens you so.

There must be a good reason
for why you tense up
when you hear a vacuum.

But you do not need to explain
why you are afraid
of a plague.

*

As it turns out
studying history
does not truly prepare you
for living
during historic times.

*

Editorial Note: This is a collection of Plague Poems written between May 14, 2022 and May 20, 2022.

They were initially posted online on Twitter at @plaguepoems and Instagram at @plague_poems.

Throughout the duration of this crisis new poems will be posted regularly at that Twitter account, they will then be collected and reposted here in weekly increments.

*

When you write
the name of the plague
you must remember to use
all capital letters
not because
the name is an acronym
but because
words written
in all capital letters
are read as screams.

*

We have always lived
in a country that would allow
a million lives
to be claimed by a plague
it is just that it used to be easier
to pretend
that we did not live
in a country that would allow
a million lives
to be claimed by a plague.

*

How difficult it is
to see a wave approaching
when rather than look
out at the waters
one has instead chosen
to bury one’s head in the sand.

*

You need not know
the right answer
to the plague’s riddle
in order to recognize
that the answer
we have settled on
is not the right one.

*

We must be careful
with the verb tenses
in our questions
for we should not be asking
how could this have happened
but instead be asking
how could this still be happening.

*

I fear I have fallen behind
by this age I know I should have
finished with school
and started a career
paired with a life partner
and had a child
purchased a decent house
and started saving for retirement
I had tried to plan
my life’s route carefully
but a plague got in the way.

*

My brother-in-law
used to tell me
that the pandemic was not real
just an evil conspiracy
to deprive the people
of their freedoms
and though he rarely speaks
of this vast conspiracy anymore
the strange fatigue
he just can’t seem to shake
has greatly curtailed his freedom.

*

There’s not need
to be so disappointed
with how poorly you’re managing
you’re doing well enough
and that is sufficient
go easy on yourself
really, it is not as though
you were named
most likely to thrive in a plague
in your high school yearbook.

*

As if the plague
was not enough
we must now also worry
about the pox.

*

Please calm down
your hyperbolic anxiety
isn’t helping anyone
this pox is an old virus
one we know well
there is an effective vaccine
public health officials understand it
so please just calm down
it is not as though you have a reason
for doubting our ability
to manage a virus.

*

When she caught it
in the winter
she told me that she was relieved
it had seemed inescapable
and though she had tried
(and she really had tried)
there was a certain peace
in the inevitable inevitably happening
but when she caught it again
in the spring
she was not relieved at all.

*

Listen
(haven’t you heard?)
we must accept
that everyone is too exhausted
don’t ask anything of anyone
they aren’t willing to do it
we must learn
to live with the pox
just the same
as we have learned
to live with the plague
(haven’t you heard?)
it’ll work out fine.

*

According to some
we should not fixate
on the death toll
unfortunate though it is
the victims were going to die
sooner or later.

Of course they are right
all human beings die
eventually
but we are right to fixate
on the lives
that the plague stole
sooner rather than later.

*

We have lost much
to the plague
days and weeks
months and years
plans and prospects
health and lives
but in this moment
the absence we feel most acutely
is that we have lost
the ability to believe
that this country
can control a deadly outbreak.

*

Though it may feel
like we are going round
and round and round
in circles
this is only partially true
for it is not
that we are going round
and round and round
in circles
but that we
are slowly circling
the drain.

*

It is not the case
that you are
wasting
your limited years of life
but that you are trying your best
not to completely
waste away
so that there just might be
something left of you
should you survive
the plague years.

*

*

Plague Poems…the next week

Plague Poems…the first week

Plague Poems…the full list

About Z.M.L

“I do not believe that things will turn out well, but the idea that they might is of decisive importance.” – Max Horkheimer librarianshipwreck.wordpress.com @libshipwreck

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