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

The year
is new
the plague
is old.

*

A headache and fatigue
nausea and fogginess
these are normal symptoms
of a hangover
after a celebratory night
and I hope, my friend, that your
headache and fatigue
nausea and fogginess
are from alcohol
you were drinking
and not from the virus
you were breathing.

*

My cousin has resolved
to learn to cook
my friend has resolved
to stop drinking
my coworker has resolved
to finish her book
and you have resolved
to do something too
but what unites
these resolutions
is how easily they are derailed
unless you also resolve
to avoid the plague.

*

I have not bothered
to make a resolution
you see, several years ago
I resolved
to survive the pandemic
and as this new year begins
I’m still quite busy
trying to fulfill
that old resolution.

*

Editorial Note: This is a collection of Plague Poems written between December 30, 2023 and January 5, 2024.

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.

*

If they ask you
how you are feeling
reply with a straightforward
“I’m worried”
and when they ask you
for more details tell them
that with your “I’m worried”
you were simply quoting the words
of the technical lead
for the COVID-19 response
at the World Health Organization.

*

The day after Christmas
he told me he had been given
a sweater and pajamas
gift certificates and some books
workout gear and rpg dice
and when we spoke yesterday
he mentioned how it seems
that on Christmas
he was also given the virus.

*

According to the headline
“COVID cases
may break UK record
in January
due to JN.1 variant,
scientists warn”
but that’s over there
no such threat exists
for us over here
we need not worry
about breaking the case record
for long ago we decided
to stop counting cases.

*

Here
in the pandemic’s fifth year
we have been abandoned
by our leaders and institutions
by our journalists and employers
and too many of us
have even been abandoned
by our friends and family
these days it often seems
like the only thing that sticks around
is the plague.

*

Those who understand
how to make sense
of the wastewater data
predict that in the current wave
around 1 in 3 people in the US
will probably contract the plague
but we are all so confident
that no one we know
that no one we care about
will be one of those 1 in 3.

*

A friend remarked
that as the year begins
it feels as though
we are all of us standing
on the edge of the abyss
and I was not sure
which of the many abysses
we are standing on the edge of
he meant.

*

There is something
horribly appropriate
to relying
on wastewater data
in this moment in which
our hopes
are being flushed away.

*

Should you find yourself
wondering how well
living with the virus
is currently going
just know
that the public hospitals
in New York City
have reintroduced
their mask mandates.

*

I asked the math professor
what to make of the estimates
that in this surge
1 in 3 will contract the virus
and rather than reply
with graphs or equations
he noted he’ll soon be
in lecture halls filled
with hundreds of students
and so he worries
1 in 3 might be too optimistic.

*

They keep saying
that masks don’t work
but wherever I look
I see sickly unmasked faces
and wherever I go
I hear people loudly coughing
which makes me think
that it is not wearing a mask
which isn’t working.

*

Apologies, for repeating myself
I know who declared
the global health emergency
over in May, but when I hear
them say “JN.1 continues to rise
in detection, but what matters
to you
is that COVID-19 is circulating
in ALL countries”
it feels like the emergency
never really ended.

*

Here at the beginning
of the pandemic’s fifth year
we have finally succeeded
in flattening the curve
though unfortunately
we have chosen to flatten it
against the y-axis.

*

When they speak
of their plague symptoms
before asking
what they are sick with
what everyone is sick with
it is not that they do not know
but that they do know
and so they keep asking
in the hopes that someone
will provide them with
a less frightening answer.

*

I know, I know,
you keep saying
that you did not
see this coming
that nobody could have
seen this coming
I hear you
but please my friend
you must recognize
that the problem is you
keep closing your eyes.

*

I keep hearing it said
that the pandemic showed
that it continues to show
people for who they really are
and though I used to think
I was a decent judge of character
at this point I must admit
there are so many people
who I liked a lot more
before I found out
who they really are.

*

If you must know
what I accomplished
in 2023
I will tell you:
I survived it.

If you ask me
what I hope to accomplish
in 2024
I will tell you:
survive it.

*

*

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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