Plague Poems – The Hundred-and-Fifty-First Week

When she asks me
to grab her one of the test-kits
from the stack under the sink
I notice
that it expired months ago
it is as if the test-kit
also thought
that the pandemic
would be over by now.

*

She sends me to the pharmacy
to get a new battery
for our electronic thermometer
some more flu medicine
a fresh bottle of honey
and that throat coat tea she likes
it’s probably just a cold
at worst maybe the flue
but I also buy
a fresh box of test-kits
just in case.

*

Standing before
the mostly empty shelves
in the pharmacy’s
cold and flu aisle
I wonder how it can be
that it is still like this
after all this time
but when I look around
at my unmasked fellow shoppers
I am reminded of the answer.

*

In the first year
of the pandemic
I lost a job.

In the second year
of the pandemic
I lost time.

In the third year
of the pandemic
I lost my health.

In the fourth year
of the pandemic
I am losing hope.

*

Editorial Note: This is a collection of Plague Poems written between January 28, 2023 and February 3, 2023.

They were initially posted online on Twitter at @plaguepoems, on Mastodon at @plaguepoems@mastodon.social, and on Instagram at @plague_poems.

Throughout the duration of this crisis new poems will be posted regularly at the above mentioned accounts, they will then be collected and reposted here as weekly compendiums.

*

I have heard it said
that the politicians
will declare an end
to the virus’s
public health emergency
come May
though I worry
that such a declaration
will just be ignored
by the virus.

*

I know you are concerned
(how could you not be?)
about what the end
of the public health emergency
will mean, but do not worry
you’ll just need to rely
on your insurance company
and if you are one of the many
under-insured or uninsured
well in that case
good luck.

*

Call it cynicism
or a side effect
of listening to too many
old punk records
but I never really had faith
in institutions or the government.

Call it naïveté
or a side effect
of listening to too many
old punk records
but I used to really have faith
in my comrades and friends.

*

I do not miss
those horrid early days
of uncertainty and fear
but I will confess
to a certain fondness
for that period
in the second and third years
when people willingly masked
and it seemed like hardly anyone
caught the flu or a cold.

*

If you don’t have the stomach
for the scary parts
while watching a horror movie
you can always cover your eyes
and feel confident
that you will safely reach the end
a pandemic is horrible
but it is not a horror movie
if you would see its end
you must not cover your eyes.

*

And in the fourth year
of the pandemic
it was decided
that the problem was not
the actual virus
but the people
who refused to forget
about the actual virus.

*

Where once
we would commemorate
plague deaths
reaching a horrid milestone
with a moment of silence
now when we pass
another tragic milestone
we prefer to simply remain
silent about the plague.

*

One of my cousins lives
in Greenwich mean time
a colleague of mine lives
in Korea standard time
and an old friend now lives
in mountain time
for some of us it is earlier
for some of us it is later
but how many of us foolishly think
we are living in the time
after the plague.

*

Walking to work
on garbage day
I passed by a recycling bin
from which protruded
the colorful cardboard boxes
of several test-kits
and I suppose that this
is a depressingly modern way
of signaling
where there are infected inside.

*

He begins my interview
not by telling me
about the position
or asking about my qualifications
but by apologizing
for his hoarse voice
he explains he has a sore throat
that he has had it for weeks
and in that moment
I am grateful
that our interview
is being conducted online.

*

In my library is an account
from ninety years ago
on the rise of fascism
titled “The Brown Plague”
anxiously I turn its pages
unable to ignore similarities
between then
and recent headlines
it has been terrible
enduring the plague
but I fear the brown plague
will be even worse.

*

I asked my friend
who studies history
how future historians
will describe this moment
and she replied
that while she could not know
what future historians will say
about this moment
she could report
that current historians
are really quite concerned.

*

It is not so much
that I am concerned
about the avian flu
as that I fear
the current pandemic
has so ravaged us
that whatever calamity
strikes us next
will find us completely lacking
in the sense of solidarity
necessary to meet it.

*

It happens to all of us
you sign up for the sample
planning to cancel
before the first charge
but, alas, you forget
and wind up paying
month after month
until you take the steps
to cancel your membership
and at least in this way
the plague is like
a streaming service.

*

The more I read
about the influenza of the birds
the more I feel as though
we are back where we were
in February of 2020
nervously watching
a potential catastrophe
grow closer
while we hope for the best
when we should be
preparing for the worst.

*

According to the date
on the box
of blue and orange gelcaps
which I purchased
at the pandemic’s start
the medicine has now expired
but that’s okay
for they still work
just not quite as well
as they used to
and I can empathize
for I still work
just not quite as well
as I used to.

*

*

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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