Plague Poems – The Two-Hundred-and-Third Week

Abandoned
to death and pestilence
to famine and war
we keep saying
that the cavalry isn’t coming
but we are wrong
we are woefully wrong
for what are the four horsemen
if not cavalry?

*

I used to scoff
at how public health guidance
had been reduced
to “wash your hands”
but according to a headline
“Almost half of Gen Z
are ‘germaphobes’
and handwash
10-times or more daily”
which just goes to show
that you will be mocked
for doing the bare minimum.

*

I do not miss
the pandemic’s early days
but as last week
was the fourth in a row
in which the plague
claimed more than 2,000 lives
and the twentieth in a row
in which the plague
claimed more than 1,000 lives
I must confess that I miss
the days when such numbers
still shocked us.

*

Should they react
to your precautions
by suggesting that
you are not living your life
by suggesting that
you are not really living your life
explain gently but firmly that
you are living your life
you are really living your life
it’s just that you are doing so
during a pandemic.

*

Editorial Note: This is a collection of Plague Poems written between January 27, 2024 and February 2, 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.

*

A new study
from a Swedish hospital
says even a mild case
carries a risk
of several years of brain fog
and though I do not mean
to be pedantic
it does not sounds
like there is anything mild
about a virus which
carries a risk
of several years of brain fog.

*

The German recession
has been blamed
on the fact that
the average German worker
took twenty sick days last year
but here in the United States
we have no such problem
for the average American worker
just doesn’t have
that many sick days.

*

When he finally catches his breath
he assures me
with complete seriousness
that he doesn’t have the virus
no, he just has a case
of the hundred day cough
which makes me wonder
how he’ll phrase his denial
after his cough has lasted
for more than a hundred days.

*

Whenever I admit
I am concerned
they tell me that I need
to get a grip
and I wish I knew
how to explain to them
that the reason why
I am concerned
is because I have not
lost my grip
on my humanity.

*

When I tell my friend
the science fiction fan
that 2024 has started terribly
she says she’s not surprised
after all, she explains,
2024 is the year of the Bell Riots
and Parable of the Sower
begins on July 20, 2024
and I am worried
that by this she means
it’s going to get worse.

*

A new study
published in Science Advances
connects the worst plagues
that ravaged the Roman Empire
to climatic changes,
meanwhile,
scientists have confirmed
that last year
(the pandemic’s fourth full year)
was the warmest year on record
but I’m sure
there’s no need to worry.

*

My boss politely inquired
how much longer
I plan on wearing a mask for
and so I replied
by reminding him
of how just the other day
he had commented that I
was the only person
who hadn’t already taken
multiple sick days this year
and I could tell
he didn’t like my answer.

*

When I was young
idealistic and angry
they told me with age
I would grow to be
more conservative
and I suppose I have
for my hair is no longer green,
circle pits have lost their appeal,
sweaters fill my wardrobe,
no longer young
now I am old,
and yet I remain
idealistic and angry.

*

After I tell her
I am feeling stressed
and I’m barely sleeping
she tells me that what I need
is to take magnesium
and so now
I am feeling stressed
and I’m barely sleeping
but at least
my magnesium levels are up.

*

There were a few weeks
early in the pandemic
where they were limiting capacity
at the supermarket
so we would stand outside
waiting together
until it was our turn to go in
and while I do not miss
those anxious days
at least back then
we understood
that we were in it together.

*

My aunt, the doctor,
told me a new joke.
She asked:

How can you tell
that the situation
is worse
than most people think?

I said I did not know.
So she answered:

Because the CDC
just warned “Your next
COVID-19 infection
could be your worst.”

And I told her
she isn’t funny.

*

My friend, the academic,
insists that history
does not repeat
though sometimes
sometimes it rhymes
and when I ask him
what this means, he says,
that in the last century
there was a world war
and then a plague
but in this century
the plague happened first.

*

We wonder why
everyone is sick
and we wonder why
this pandemic
keeps dragging on,
meanwhile, in other news,
a new study reveals
that to keep from missing out
on travel or work
or social gatherings
some 75% of adults
have hidden it when carrying
an infectious disease.

*

I saw a headline
about passengers
on a cruise ship who
“mysteriously fall ill”
and as I read the list
of familiar symptoms
I could not help but think
that it did not sound
particularly mysterious.

*

The experts have asked it
and the groundhog
has informed them
that this winter
is almost over,
now if only we knew
which animal to ask
to find out
how much longer
this pandemic will last.

*

Today
the pandemic has ended
hundreds,
this week
the pandemic has ended
thousands,
but if you are here
alive to read these words
give thanks
that the pandemic
has not yet ended you.

*

*

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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