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

At the pandemic’s start
I did not worry, for I believed
that compared to
the other crises we face
handling the pandemic
would be easy,
in the pandemic’s fifth year
I worry, for I believe
that compared to
the other crises we face
handling the pandemic
should have been easy.

*

It is not so much the case
that next
we are all going to start
accusing each other
of being lazy malingerers
for taking sick days,
but that those among us
who already think
that sick days
are for lazy malingers
will start feeling comfortable
making that accusation openly.

*

Red eyed and congested
he apologizes for being unwell
it’s just allergies, he insists,
really, it’s just allergies,
he never used to have them
not at all, not until
the last few years
and now he can’t shake them
regardless of the season
but it’s allergies, it’s just allergies.

*

There’s no point in lying
you wouldn’t believe me if I tried
so I will admit it:
yes, I remain anxious
about covid
though I truly believe
that I am nowhere near
as anxious as those
who cannot bring themselves
to acknowledge
that the virus is still circulating.

*

Editorial Note: This is a collection of Plague Poems written between March 23, 2024 and March 29, 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.

*

My friend in Baltimore
called to ask me
if I had heard
about the ship crash
which caused a bridge collapse
and because I had not yet
seen the news
I could not tell
if he meant “the ship crash
which caused a bridge collapse”
literally or as a metaphor
for the state of our world.

*

I’ve heard it said
that the explanation
for the foul national mood
is “unprocessed COVID grief”
which may be the case
but it is worth remembering
that should you try
to process or even acknowledge
that grief
you will be accused
of living in the past.

*

If we have learned anything
form these last few years
it is that the things
we depend on
to keep our world
from falling apart
are themselves
just one disaster away
from collapsing.

*

Oceans rise,
ships crash,
plagues spread,
bombs explode,
forests burn,
institutions fail,
as the world around us
falls apart
the only think left
for us to do
is to try
to keep one another
from falling.

*

Should they respond
(and they will respond)
to your mentioning of
the pandemic’s ongoing toll
by mentioning that influenza
has a death toll as well
just know that they
are not actually interested
in doing anything
to lower either of those tolls.

*

When I mention
how many people I know
who are sick these days
he furiously retorts
that everyone he knows
is feeling absolutely fine
and the angrier he gets
while insisting on his point
the more I conclude
that if we knew each other
I would not confide in him
if I were sick.

*

I sent my cousin
the school teacher
an article with the headline
“Kids missing more school
since the pandemic”
and asked if she
was seeing something similar
to which she replied by noting
that “since” is an odd way
of spelling “because of.”

*

It is precisely because
we never imagined
that it would get this bad
that we must now
force ourselves to image
how things might become
even worse.

*

Despite what you may see
in the headlines
it is not so much that
“COVID cautious Americans
feel abandoned”
as it is that they
(and indeed that all of us)
have been abandoned,
and the few remaining
“COVID cautious Americans”
are not in denial about this.

*

Forgive me, I do not wish
to sound conspiratorial
(I’m sure it’s just a coincidence)
but it seems rather odd
how we are being encouraged
to offload our thinking
to artificial intelligence
as we get repeatedly infected
by a virus
that can damage the brain.

*

Looking back, the professor,
tells me that she knew
the pandemic
was going to be bad
when in the first year
her university told students
not to return after spring break,
and she knows that it’s still bad
because her students
have returned from spring break
and they’re all sick.

*

The etymologists
say “compassion”
comes from the Latin word
“compati”
meaning “suffer with”
but in the dark times
we do not suffer with
rather we suffer from
we suffer from crisis
we suffer from plague
we suffer from catastrophe
we suffer from our inability
to compati each other.

*

Everything you need to know
about surviving a pandemic
you can learn
from watching disaster movies
for such movies understand
that most people
will stop paying attention
to outbreaks and contagions
after about two hours.

*

The other day
I received a postcard
from the White House and CDC
which stated “it is critical
that you do your part
to slow the spread
of the coronavirus”
that other day
was in March 2020
and though I held on to it
I know most have thrown away
that postcard
and that sentiment.

*

A sense of impending doom,
fear of a loss of control,
nausea and headache,
a feeling of uncertainty,
troubled by trembling
I had looked up the symptoms
of a panic attack
only to find many of them
to be sensible reactions
given the state of the world.

*

The world as we know it
is a bridge
imposing and sturdy
but in need of maintenance
it was there before us
so we assume that, of course,
it will be there, just as it is,
even after we are gone
yes, the world as we know it
is a bridge
and it is one collision away
from collapsing.

*

*

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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