Plague Poems – The Hundred-and-Sixty-Fourth Week

When I despair
my spiritual friend tells me
to keep in mind
that things may be rough here
but that there are
a nearly infinite number
of world and realities
which I hope means
that in at least one of them
they are not allowing
the plague to win.

According to the news
the Center for Disease Control
is preparing to stop
tracking community levels
which seems to suggest
that contrary to their name
the organization
is not particularly invested
in controlling disease.

A prominent doctor notes:
“Right now,
we’re just accepting that
270,000
Americans died last year.
270,000.
We’re going to easily lose over
100,000
this year. That, to me,
is not success,”
but now we have a plan
to ensure we do not reach
that galling number:
we will stop counting.

It’s just unrealistic
to expect the public
will make any sacrifices
for the sake of public health
–at least, that is what he said,
after driving his car
sober and seatbelted
to a restaurant
where no one is allowed to smoke
and at which the employees
must wash their hands.

Editorial Note: This is a collection of Plague Poems written between April 29, 2023 and May 5, 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.

This is not
my first allergy season
I am quite accustomed
to hearing sneezes everywhere
and to being always prepared
with a quick “gesundheit,”
yes, I’m used to sneezes in spring
however this year
I am not hearing sneezing
but coughing.

I keep hearing people say
that this is clearly more
than allergies
yes, allergies can make your eyes itch
and can make your eyes red
but not like this,
no, this isn’t allergies
it must be pink eye
and whenever I hear this,
I think: pink eye
so that’s what we’re calling it now.

A doctor from the WHO
note: “the virus
continues to evolve
and will continue to evolve
because the virus
is circulating
pretty much unchecked,”
and while I do not mean
to be unfair, I had thought
that ensuring viruses
do not circulate unchecked
was the WHO’s responsibility.

One of the causes
of conjunctivitis
(better known as pink eye)
is getting fecal matter
in your eyes
but this current rash
of pink colored eyes
is not the result
of literal fecal matter
but a testament to the fact
that as regards this pandemic
we’re still in very deep shit.

My manager pulls me aside
to ask if our colleague
is doing alright,
my manager explains
that our colleague’s eyes
look horribly, scarily, red
like he has been weeping
and to my shame
I hope that it is just sadness
and nothing more contagious
causing my colleague’s red eyes.

I asked my friend
the rabbi
if there is a blessing
that is also a curse
and after a thinking for a moment
she replied that yes
there is a blessing
that is also a curse:
may you be given
the same amount of empathy
as you give unto others.

I keep hearing people say
that they cannot believe
they caught COVID in 2023
and while I wish them
a safe and swift recovery
I cannot help but think
that it is precisely because
they could not believe
they could get COVID in 2023
that they wound up
getting COVID in 2023.

According to the biologist
Leslie Orgel’s second rule:
“evolution
is cleverer than you are,”
and while this sadly explains
this evolving plague
we could respond to Orgel’s rule
with Kropotkin’s maxim
that mutual aid
is also a factor in evolution,
if alas
we were only clever enough.

According to
the surgeon general
we are in the midst
of an empidemic
of loneliness
and while that may be true
we are also in the midst
of a pandemic
and the virus
is never lonely.

You must force yourself
to remember
that there were weeks
during which
outside of hospitals
there were parked
refrigerated trucks
refrigerated trucks to hold
the plague’s dead
you must force yourself
to remember this
so at least someone here
will not forget it.

I fear
that many of us
have grown accustomed
to sitting idly by
numbly watching
as other people die.

At hospitals
and doctors’ offices
the masks
are being taken off
which is completely fine
as hospitals
and doctors’ offices
are always filled
with healthy people.

You may have heard
that the WHO has declared
“COVID-19 over
as a global health emergency”
so it would be great
if you could please
inform the virus
of this declaration,
which should be easy to do,
seeing as you still
run into the virus
wherever you go.

“The worst thing
any country could do now
is to use this news
as a reason
to let down its guard,
to dismantle the systmes
it has built, or
to send the message
to its people
that COVID-19
is nothing to worry about”
which is an odd thing to say
while hoisting the white flag.

It was
“with great hope”
that the WHO declared
“COVID-19 over
as a global health emergency”
and while it is impossible
to survive the plague
without hope
it is also impossible
to survive the plague
on hope alone.

In the fight
against the plague
we have lost battle
after battle
after battle
after battle
but today it feels
as if we have finally
lost the war.

Please, before the weeks is over,
take a moment
to order more test kits
as of May 11
(when the emergency ends)
Medicare and private insurers
will not longer cover the costs
of those test kits
so take a moment to order more
for the emergency may be ending
but the pandemic endures.

How can you determine
if an emergency
has reached its end?

It’s quite simple really.

An emergency
has reached its end
once the emergency
has become
the new status quo.

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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