Plague Poems – The Eighty-Eighth Week
Tired and angry as you are be aware that by week’s end you will be exhausted and furious. * At first they said the plague would never reach our shores. … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Eighty-Seventh Week
According to the scale that I keep in my bathroom I weigh now more or less the same as I did when the pandemic began so I suppose this hollowness … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Eighty-Sixth Week
The plastic skeletons have disappeared from the stores. The cardboard gravestones have been tossed into the recycling bin. The ghost in the tree is now just a sheet in the … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Eighty-Fifth Week
If you wish to see the pandemic continue even longer by all means act as though it has already ended. * We will not stop to mourn. We will not … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Eighty-Fourth Week
If you must worry do not focus on the plague instead worry that compared to the other challenges bearing down upon us addressing the plague has been easy. * Near … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Eighty-Third Week
It is not that you are living in fear. But that even after so many months you are still living in a pandemic. * We are eager for the pandemic … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Eighty-Second Week
It would be inaccurate to claim that the decline in new cases and the decline in daily deaths will mean that we shall stop paying attention to the pandemic. Such … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Eighty-First Week
If you must name the current season do us all a favor and refer to it as the autumn thus may we enjoy the crispness in the air and the … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Eightieth Week
You need not know the exact number or the statistical details that will allow you to place that first number into a broad historic or population sized context for you … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Seventy-Ninth Week
So you did not finish writing the novel you were going to write. So you neglected the sourdough starter you were going to bake with. So the weights You were … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Seventy-Eighth Week
At the start of every month I tell myself that this is the month in which the pandemic will finally come to an end. Of course I know that I … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Seventy-Seventh Week
Fortunately, I am not religious for if I were a believer I imagine that the sight of the four horsemen trotting back and forth across the headlines week after week … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Seventy-Sixth Week
No matter how ardent is your attempt you will never succeed in keeping a hurricane from making landfall by standing alone on the beach and blowing at the sky. * … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Seventy-Fifth Week
Of course we know that there are events occurring in the world other than the plague but that does not mean that we can blithely ignore the plague. * Prometheus … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Seventy-Fourth Week
How distressing it is to be reminded that this wretched pandemic is not the only worsening catastrophe in which we are embroiled. * We can howl with grief. We can … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Seventy-Third Week
How exhausting it is to begin your week knowing that by week’s end the situation will have become even more dire. And how exhausting it is when you come to … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Seventy-Second Week
I would not be so bold as to now predict exactly how much longer the plague will last for I will admit that it has already lasted longer (much longer) … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Seventy-First Week
My father (who missed us) keeps looking at the familyassembled together hereand proudly declaring that“we all got through this”because I know how worriedhe has beenbecause I know how worriedhe still … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Seventieth Week
At long last it is time to admit it: the alarmists were right to be so alarmed. * Death is inevitable so too are virusesbut that this virushas killed so … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Sixty-Ninth Week
We celebrate with the greatest intensity when we suspect that we have little cause to celebrate. * How very unfortunateare thosewho can act as thoughthis last yearnever happened. How very … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Sixty-Eighth Week
You do not need to say that we are not ready for the challenges that await us for there is ample evidence that we are not ready for the challenges … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Thirty-First Week
Gathered virtually we gave voice to our feelings of loss. “I miss playing for an audience” the musician sighed. “I miss being in the classroom with my students” the teacher … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Thirtieth Week
In confusion and consternation a fatigued people cry out “What is happening?” “I am” replies the plague. * Do not pray for a powerful man to recover. Do not pray … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Twenty-Ninth Week
On this day of awe we set aside our excuses our frail justifications so that we may atone and so that we may forgive the transgressions against us. Sitting in … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Twenty-Eighth Week
A country that does not stop to mourn two hundred thousand deaths is a country that does not have long left. * I understand (how could I not?) why you … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Twenty-Seventh Week
The clearer it becomes that the future for which I had always prepared has vanished the more confused I am by the ways in which day after day I continue … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Twenty-Sixth Week
Do not allow yourself to believe that it was inevitable that a week would begin with the terrible news that the plague has claimed its one hundred and ninety thousandth … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Twenty-Fifth Week
One can be excused for failing to be ready when the unimaginable strikes by their very nature such calamities elude most minds. Yes one can be forgiven for lacking foresight … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Twenty-Fourth Week
This morning my love left me dressed formally clutching old keys bag nervously in hand returning to the campus where their classroom of masked pupils awaits. This evening my love … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Twenty-Third Week
You need not be a sagacious prophet wizened in interpreting the motions of the heavens in order to understand that it is an ill omen for a week to being … Continue reading
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