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

The latest report from
the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change
is a welcome reminder
that the pandemic
is not the only crisis
where we know
what we need to be doing
but where we are instead
choosing to ignore the crisis.

Apparently “We
might come to expect
some frequency
of post-covid symptoms,
and the resulting disability,
as a ‘new normal.'”
which is a sentence
I did not make up
for even though I
am often quite pessimistic
I refuse to just quietly accept
that this is the new normal.

During that long ago
first weekend
of staying in to flatten the curve
I held myself
a questionable film festival
Outbreak and 12 Monkeys
Contagion and The Andromeda Strain
and what I have learned since
is that actual pandemics
last must longer than virus movies.

Wherever I look of late
I see images
that were generated by programs
as well as text
conjured up by artificial intelligence
and human beings
who treat one another
with a cold indifference
befitting heartless machines.

Editorial Note: This is a collection of Plague Poems written between March 18, 2023 and March 24, 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.

According to the headlines
a new variant
may be driving a rise
in cases and deaths
but that is happening
elsewhere
should that variant
make an appearance here
we will be ready
to just ignore it.

Please, do not confuse
the pandemic
with that popular franchise
you know, the one that has
spawned cartoons
feature length films
numerous video games
and collectible cards
the virus is not a pocket monster
when it comes to its new variants
you do not need to catch ’em all.

I used to worry
that if I did not maintain
an adequate supply
that I might run out of masks
only to find all the sellers
completely sold out
but these days I find
that there’s no longer
a shortage of quality masks
which makes me worry
that I must be
the only one still buying them.

On the pharmacy’s floor
is a faded sticker which reads:
“stay safe–six feet apart”
seeing that I am looking at it
an employee tells me
that they tried to get rid of it
but it’s really stuck
so they’ve decided to live with it
and I can’t tell
if he means the sticker or the virus.

When the elevator doors opened
revealing a space filled
with maskless faces
I decided that I should probably
just take the stairs
and as I dragged my tired body
up flight after flight
I reflected on how lucky I am
to have the stairs as an option.

He tells me it’s allergies
his mind is foggy
his eyes are watery
his temperature is feverish
his whole body aches
and he can’t stop coughing
has he taken his allergy pills?
yes, but the pills haven’t helped,
and so I think to myself:
allergies
so that’s what we’re calling it now.

It would be easy
to claim that we are so afraid
of being called
negative
should we talk about the virus
that we keep testing
positive
for that very same virus
but such a claim
is really quite inaccurate
for it misleadingly suggests
that we’re still bothering
to get tested.

We disdainfully recall
that silly video
of celebrities serenading us
from the pandemic’s early days
the vocals were off
The production was poor
so we laugh
as that way we need not admit
how the belief that we
would get through this together
truly was something
we just imagined.

When the man in the shop
asked me
if I was going
to keep wearing my mask
forever
I replied by asking him
if he was going
to keep getting strangely ill
forever
and I could tell immediately
that he did not like my question.

The news
that the White House
will be disbanding its COVID team
come May
must come as quite a shock
to the virus
for it must have thought
that the effort to contain it
had been abandoned long ago.

Though the reports
about raising the retirement age
certainly worry me
I try to keep things in perspective
so I take a deep breath
and remember
that the retirement age
may be going up
but life expectancy
is going down
so it’s not like I am going
to even make it to retirement age.

The peaks
are no longer
quite as close to the clouds
and yet
the plateaus
are no longer
particularly close to the ground.

Haven’t you heard?
You must accept
personal responsibility
for assessing your level of risk
it is up to you to check sources
and plan accordingly,
meanwhile, in other news,
after more than three years
the newspaper of record
is shutting down
its COVID data-gathering operation.

The climate is changing
yes, but it must not be that.

We’ve surrendered to the virus
yes, but it must not be that.

The book banners are in power
yes, but it must not be that.

Bigotry is on the rise
yes, but it must not be that.

The youth are depressed
yes, it must be their phones.

Should you remind them
that the virus remains
a leading cause of death
they will say, yes,
that may be true
but it is only the third
leading cause of death,
and when they tell you this
it is worthwhile to remind them
that unlike the top two causes
this virus is contagious.

He calls to tell me
that after three years
after three god damn years
he has tested positive
for the first time
and when I tell him
how sorry I am to hear
that he has caught it
he corrects me
for he has been running
for he has been hiding
he didn’t try to catch it
it caught him.

We must not allow
children to see
masked faces
for it might give them
the impression
that some people
believe they have a duty
to protect one another
and we wouldn’t want
children thinking that.

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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