Plague Poems – The Hundred-and-Eighty-Ninth Week

By now
you should have figured out
that if you want
your government
to provide adequate funds
to sustain you
in your time of need
you should have been
a war.

*

My friend
I am heartened to see you
marching and standing
in solidarity
against this catastrophe
but please, my friend,
when you join with others
marching and standing
remember that wearing a mask
is also a kind of solidarity.

*

By now
you have likely heard
that a five-day course
of Paxlovid
will cost you around
fourteen hundred dollars
but don’t worry about that
surely you saved
that fourteen hundred dollar
relief check
(the one from years ago)
for precisely this moment.

*

When talking
about the pandemic
my friend, the old punk,
would often say
that at least now we
know where people stand
and as our conversation shifts
from the virus
to the catastrophe
she simply says
and now we really
know where people stand.

*

Editorial Note: This is a collection of Plague Poems written between October 21, 2023 and October 27, 2023.

They were initially posted online on X/Twitter at @plaguepoems, on Mastodon at @plaguepoems@mastodon.social, on Bluesky at @plaguepoems, on Threads at @plague_poems, 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.

*

Give your
neighbors and coworkers
a bit more credit
they are not as oblivious
as you think they are
of course they know
about the pandemic
of course they know
about the catastrophe
the problem with your
neighbors and coworkers
is not their unawareness
but their indifference.

*

An apology
to the stranger who observed
that not all of my words
are strictly about the plague:
you are correct
and I am sorry
truly sorry to inform you
that the plague
is not the only calamity
that we face
in these plague years.

*

He has a cold
quite a bad cold
but he’s not worried
after all, it’s cold season
so this isn’t that unusual
and as he coughs
I wonder if I should remind him
that he also had this cold
in the spring and in the summer.

*

As I pushed my cart
through the aisles
it occurred to me
that I was seeing
masked faces
many more masked faces
than I had seen in ages
and as I passed by them
I was not sure
if this was a good sign
or a very bad sign.

*

He tells me
that he’s been unwell
so I inquire
if he has gotten tested
and with genuine confusion
he looks bat at me
and asks
“gotten tested for what?”
and in that moment
I just knew
that it’s going to be
a very long winter.

*

For wars
the money
can always be found
unless, that is
the war in question
is against a virus.

*

My friend, the nerd,
has caught it again
he announced this
by joking that he “failed
his constitution saving throw”
and though I laughed
I could not help thinking
that considering how often
he rolls dice
he should really know
that if you keep rolling
eventually your luck runs out.

*

You must not believe
that our leaders
have learned nothing
from the pandemic
for it is quite clear
they have learned
that the best way to distract
from countless deaths
is to dispute the count
or to stop counting entirely.

*

You can tell
that you are living
in the dark times
if when they ask you
if you have heard
the terrible news
you have to respond
by asking them
which terrible news
they mean.

*

I used to believe
that indifference
to others’ suffering
was the worst
but as my brother-in-law
excitedly proclaims
that the catastrophe is proof
the End of Days
has come at last
I am reminded
that worse than being indifferent
to others’ suffering
is to glorify it.

*

When the Halloween decorations
come down
the Christmas decorations
will go up
and though I am not eager
to see jolly Santas
glowing reindeer
and plump snowmen
more than anything
I cannot wait
for all these displays
of grinning skeletons
and fake tombstones
to be put away.

*

They say it’s impossible
to unscramble an egg
or to put the toothpaste
back in the tube
but pestilence and war
are not eggs or toothpaste
just horsemen
and it is quite possible
to put the horses
back in the stable.

*

Darker days ahead
she tells me
for all of us there are
darker days ahead
and as she delivers
this ominous declaration
I’m not really sure
if she means the plague
or the catastrophe
some other calamity
or daylight savings
but regardless of the specifics
I fear she is right.

*

Do not say
that they’re offering
nothing
when they offer
thoughts and prayers
to the victims
of gun violence
for true nothing
not even thoughts
not even prayers
is what they offer
to the victims
of the plague.

*

Amidst plague
amidst catastrophe
I still believe
that it is possible
for us to build
a better world
even as day after day
we continue
to build this wretched one.

*

One can understand
those who are sick
those sick with the virus
those sick at heart
those sick with grief
those sick and tired
what is confounding
are not those who are sick
but those
who seem absolutely fine.

*

*

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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