Plague Poems – The Hundred-and-Thirty-Third Week

Remember:
even now
after all this time
you still have not
survived the plague,
even now
you still have only
survived the plague
thus far.

I know you long to see
a friendly smile
but please understand
that a mask
is a friendly smile.

Now more than ever
you must listen
to the CDC
the CDC says:
good luck.

There will be days
when you eat nothing
and nights
of drinking to excess
there will be moments
for consuming bitter herbs
and weeks spent chewing
the bread of affliction
so today you might as well
have some apple
and have some honey
that you may remember
what sweetness is.

Editorial Note: This is a collection of Plague Poems written between September 24, 2022 and September 30, 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.

Every morning
before she leaves
I ask her
if she has her phone
(yes, she has her pone)
if she has her keys
(yes, she has her keys)
if she has her lunch
(yes, she has her lunch)
if she has a mask
(yes, she has a mask)
I do not go with her
but I make sure
she has what she needs.

You don’t have to worry
about asteroids
a giant ball of rock and ice
could kill the dinosaurs
but it wont’ get us,
a threat from the sky
that, we can handle,
what we cannot manage
is this virus in the air.

The line graphs
on the newspaper’s website
say that right now
the situation isn’t so bad
the empty desks
all around my classroom
say that right now
the situation isn’t so good.

An apology,
to the friend who complained:

I know
that these silly poems are
repetitive
and repetitive not in a good way
but in my defense
this pandemic is also
repetitive
and repetitive not in a good way.

Compared to how I once was
some things have not changed
I eat the same as I did before
the fit of my clothes is unaltered
my partner and the bathroom scale
both assure me
that I have not gained or lost weight
yet compared to how I once was
I just know
that there is less of me.

Please, do us all a favor,
avoid the simple declaration
“this is bad”
given the condition of the world
your three word statement
could refer to anything,
this is not to say
that you are wrong
but it would be helpful
if you provided some context
so we know
which “this” you mean.

The difference between
flu season and plague season
is that flue season
comes once a year
while plague season
lasts for years.

And though
the official’s comment
referred to a particular calamity
there are worse ways
to describe our moment
than “it is too late to flee.”

Of late it feels
as if there are
just too many
disasters
to keep track of.

And though I know
this will not comfort you much
please remember:
you are not living
in fear
you are living
in an era of disasters.

Anyone can tell
just by looking at you
that you hated group projects
when you were in school
something about your face
conveys that you are accustomed
to doing the work
when others will not
but in this pandemic
no matter how much
of the work you do
we will be graded as a group.

I wish
you were as angry
with the people
who are prolonging
the pandemic
as you are
with the people
who remind you
that the pandemic
has not ended.

We have learned
that we have short
attention spans,
and that mass death
can be ignored,
that inconveniences
are intolerable,
and that we are on our own.

That from the pandemic
we have learned nothing good
does not mean
that from it
we have learned nothing.

We are not getting back
to the old normal
but in this moment creating
a new normal.

The new normal
is just like
the old normal
only crueler.

When we were young and hopeful
we were outraged
merely by the suggestion
that to defeat the virus
all we needed to do
was stop doing so much testing
and act normal
but now we are old and exhausted
and we have learned to live
with what we once found outrageous.

Smiles are back
in shops and in streets
in stadiums and in schools
but the smirk of your uncle
the grin of your coworker
the beam of your friend
those smiles
you must try to remember
for they, like the faces
to which they belonged
are gone
some smiles
are never coming back.

We are still being asked
to protect one another
no, not by politicians
no, not by institutions
no, not by employers
no, not by businesses
but by the quiet voices
of our friends and neighbors
who are just trying
to survive.

For thousands of people
the pandemic ended
in September.

How fortunate you are
to have lived to see
the pandemic continue
into October.

Plague Poems…the following 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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