The Perfect Storm

It is hard to let go,
In the face of chaos,
A virus clamoring to take us all,
Yet some suffer more loss,

Then in the midst of this, the same old game,
Is played on certain groups,
So they stand up to protest against it,
Only to have to face off against troupes,

Which will exacerbate the pandemic,
Of course, it is worth it,
If this is what it takes to impel change,
Then let us do this shit,

But will things change?
Not a popular ask,
If standing up for yourself does nothing,
Then why bother even wearing a mask?

The Great Divide

The depression is here,
As some gain their freedom,
Others watch as the life that they dreaded,
Is on the horizon,

Not so close if they are not affluent,
Someone's got to be first,
Let us get those with waiting privilege,
Set back up before we release the cursed,

With some restrictions put in place, of course,
Those folks can't be trusted,
If they cannot succeed in a fixed game,
They'll get the house busted,

Left to their own,
They must be monitored,
Lest they ruin it for the one percent,
The ones deciding who can go outdoors.

Sapiens

Have you read Sapiens?
I won't spoil the ending,
It follows the history of humans,
'til two thousand, fourteen,

First off, the cognitive revolution,
Put us a step ahead,
Then farming allowed us to procreate,
Faster than any animal e'er had,

Industry let cow births surpass our own,
Their deaths far exceed that,
Overall our survival seems locked,
Well, climate may react.

Then there's SARS 2,
That didn't exist, yet,
As Harari says, history's one path,
While the future's choice is made with each step.

The Other Illness

What virus killed George Floyd,
In Minneapolis?
The contact trail would not be hard to trace,
Starting with the police,

Causing difficulty breathing in blacks,
Resisting calls to cease,
Others cannot get close enough to help,
Afraid they would contract the same disease,

Death is not diminished with quarantine,
It can break down your doors,
Risks include lack of opportunity,
And chances you'll be poor.

What is the cure?
Nothing's seemed to work, yet,
Compared to it, Covid just can't stand up,
Hundreds of years, countless numbers of deaths.

The Threshold

"It's deeply disturbing,"
What else could Justin say?
Nursing home conditions amid Covid,
Bring disgust and dismay,

Canadian military came in,
To try to help them out,
They found cockroaches, rotten food and flies,
While the pleas from residents left no doubt,

Overworked and probably scared, as well,
Plus, maybe, just not good,
Some employees left patients in their chairs,
Amid their piss and poop.

It is a shame,
The world's fragility,
Never mind when things are the status quo,
Stress on the system leads to travesty.

Wait For It

Long before Corona,
In two thousand and eight,
An economic collapse rarely seen,
Made borrowing cash great,

Money was printed out of thin air,
Then sold for really cheap,
Awaiting the day science came up with,
Some new and lucrative technology,

The world had still been riding that bubble,
When told to go inside,
Keep away from others, lest you get sick,
Best everybody hide,

But don't you see?
Science has hidden, too,
We're waiting for things that will never come,
Did something drop? Oh, there's the other shoe.

The Truth

Yes, we're in the same storm,
Yes, we're in mismatched boats,
One country sneezes, next door gets Covid,
I've read everything wrote,

No one knows its true place of origin,
Or how it all began,
Though many speak guesses as though it's truth,
That's nothing new for you ess presidents,

Yes, there are many worse off than myself,
Much fewer better fair,
That's less a reflection of what I have,
I'm not a trillionaire,

But someone is,
Thanks to the pandemic,
All you need to do is be rich to start,
Then you'd worry less about who is sick.

Please Move

Folks are getting sloppy,
At least the younger ones,
Those who are old enough to know better,
The 'duh' generation,

The weather's nice, so they all want to meet,
In big crowds at the park,
Congregate in illegally-sized groups,
Because SARS does not compare to a lark,

It makes you wonder what they were doing,
Before the sun came out,
I'm sure their actions were no different,
Behind closed doors, no doubt.

What do we do,
The older and the wise?
It's hard to put somebody in their place,
'Fyou can't get closer than six feet to try?

It's Plane To See

How safe is it to fly?
Not like it used to be,
Forget Pakistan flight eight three oh three,
Though it's a tragedy,

What other activity is like it?
Pills packed with travelers,
Sent into the sky where air is so thin,
It's recirculated from bow to stern,

An incubator for what's ailing you,
Passed on from seat to seat,
After touching ground, what is the impact,
For those the flyers meet?

Special package,
I need not speak aloud,
Who of the next generation will boast,
Seeing the sky from the top side of clouds?

They Can't Flee This

The crisis is looming,
In the refugee camps,
New York, the epicenter of Covid,
Can't even hold a lamp,

Compare its population density,
Ten thousand per square click,
To seventy thousand in the same space,
Already very hard not too get sick,

Add the inefficient hospital care,
Plus shared lavatories,
Mix in no money or true quarantine,
Equals catastrophe.

Well, to be fair,
It was dire already,
Seventy million humans round the globe,
Fleeing their own country's hostility.

True Colors

Do you have true colors?
Would I know which they are?
Would I could strip your paint to your bare skin,
Before we're rid of SARS,

It's only to rhyme the virus is named,
The same the other way,
Do you remember your hue when you thought,
This could only last a couple of days?

Now here we are, quarantined forever,
Extended for a month,
Add to the layers a layer of dust,
It's giving me a hunch,

The paint's not dry,
Before a new one's laid,
The moment you're touched, you are all mixed up,
Find yourself before applying new shades.

You're Out

There might be a vaccine,
If those, you do not fear,
Best guess from Harvard doctor Ashish Jha,
In maybe mid next year,

Then how do you distribute to billions?
Assuming that's the goal,
Basic health care is a human right, right?
It would just be insane to answer, no.

He notes that we are in the third inning,
In this Corona game,
Come the seventh inning stretch, let's all hope,
It don't get called for rain,

We need to win,
Then learn from our mistakes,
J.K., I'm sure we will do no such thing,
Let's hope this is the last for all our sakes.

Is It Time, Yet?

Go sixty thousand years,
Back through our history,
There is nothing found that can tell us much,
Though we're not shy to see,

Ourselves in the bones and few stone tools,
Well, who else could there be,
It's like when someone asks who you've become,
I can only ever ever really be me,

Now here we are in this Covid statis,
Like finally it's time,
To be who we were always meant to be,
Though we are past our prime,

Things haven't changed,
Nor have you changed inside,
The most you can do's what you never did,
As all of your dreams and hopes slowly died.

The Next Revolution

Been fifty thousand years,
Since the revolution,
When Sapiens could suddenly think up,
Made-up fabrications,

This led to innovations beyond genes,
The power to gather,
In groups up to one hundred fifty folks,
Because we could gossip about others,

As time went on, we made corporations,
Evolved from religion,
Millions of people brandishing one cause,
With nuclear fission,

Now here we are,
Back to our genes, again,
Will this lead to a new common belief,
That will evolve beyond Capitalism?

The Grand Reopening

The world's reopening,
To salvage capital,
Tourist spots standing empty as I write,
Won't stand the income fall,

Forgiven rents can't be forgiven long,
Where they even had been,
Drastic reductions in factory shifts,
Are hardly relieved by government schemes,

Kagillionaires are fretfully pacing,
For profits have reduced,
Somehow the archetypes of this f'd world,
Have to be disabused.

Let's try this out,
Everything just costs less,
A dollar's worth, say, one hundred times more,
So we can all get a stress free night's rest.

Don't Even Try

There are many people,
Who go to the U.S.
Running from danger from their own country,
Though the trek's perilous,

They come with nothing they worked for back home,
Situation's that grim,
When they arrive, if they're let in at all,
They're kept in a center for detention,

There, it is cramped and unsanitary,
It's humanely unfit,
Covid is spreading there like a wild fire,
'Cause ICE don't give a shit,

Then they're sent back.
What did they get for it?
A deadly virus for all that they owned,
So much for rewards for those who don't quit.

The End of an Era

People knew beforehand,
But what else they could do,
Other than unload stocks that would suffer,
Then call it, 'just a flu',

Then blame the administration before,
For orchestrating it,
Pass laws making the present rich, richer,
Then make their workers essential, to wit?

I am not talking about everywhere,
Just dying dynasties,
Everyone's waiting for normal to come,
But does anyone see,

That normal's gone,
Until we're used to this,
When the world sees that the greatest vaccine,
Is distanced, respectful togetherness.

What Must I Write

I wish I could write you,
What everyone's feeling,
In just this one poem, in sixteen lines,
Then get on with dealing,

With the stress of all this uncertainty.
Is it really that new,
Or have world events stripped the distractions,
That, up to now, always protected you?

It's trite to say that life could end today,
Or rather, used to be,
Is it we don't want to rebuild it all,
That we shun real'ty?

No, you tell me,
What should I write to you,
That will leave us in peace in troubled times,
To figure out what we most want to do.

Let Us Be Grateful

Let us all be grateful,
For what we did not get,
Assuming you are one of those people,
Who are not in great debt,

Assuming you aren't eighty years old,
Held in a nursing home,
A gay teen with hard parents quarantined,
Or refugee living in a war zone.

A worker with the prospect of no job,
For nothing that she did,
Oh, and I guess let's tack on one more thing,
That you don't have Covid.

For all these things,
Plus more that would not fit,
Let us appreciate what we don't have,
Until we find one day that we have it.

A Pause

What is it that you want?
That's something you must learn,
Before complaining that you don't have it,
That it's something you've earned,

The truly successful all are focused,
On what it is they love,
Whether they wrote it down when they were ten,
Or left their fate to a power above,

Both require faith and an unforgiveness,
For who you really are,
Until you realize that, you'll hurt others,
Existing way too far,

From your true self,
The purest of them all,
What a utopia we would live in,
If the government made that essential.

We Are All Comrades

There's not much more to say,
It's a desert landscape,
Either off on the future's horizon,
Or up and forward my nape,

It's like SARS has brought on communism,
A reverse ambition,
Where those who wanted but could never get,
Now are stunted when they have the freedom,

A comment on individual natures,
Oops, I must be careful,
I'm sure there are many success stories,
Exceptions to the rule.

What does that prove?
We're all better of red?
Maybe that if we're all the way we are,
At least we should all be guaranteed fed.

The Chance is Slipping

It looks like that maybe,
The appetite's not there,
For revolutionizing how we live,
Once we get the all-clear,

People have not reconstituted what,
Is left of their old ways,
Taking what they want, leaving out the rest,
Dismissing notions of the good old days,

The chance to re-evaluate your life,
Is now passing you by,
If you had three months to reflect on life,
What new things would you try?

Oh, but you did,
Instead you just waited,
For things to get back to normal, again,
When your misfortune seemed to be fated.

Stage 2

The honeymoon's over,
They say about Covid,
Just look at reactions to sunny days,
'fthe self-isolated,

The reality of death ain't enough,
Beside companionship,
Hordes of folk rendezvousing in the park,
Sitting and drinking in the face of it,

Anxiety's a diff'rent pandemic,
A side-effect, maybe,
How many deaths are a result of it,
And what is the vaccine?

Reality?
It has always been there,
If you're in it no matter circumstance,
Changes in life should be as light as air.

Have You Changed?

What have you been doing,
With all of that free time?
Have you fretted over all you’ve wasted,
As I’ve mourned over mine?

The thing about the world flipping over,
Is that you haven’t changed,
The best you can hope for’s staying healthy,
To find the new world has been rearranged,

To suit the way you’ve always approached it,
When before you would fail,
Now actions are shooting you to the top,
That once would not avail.

Here is hoping,
That you’re a good person,
That this new world that’s risen from the flames,
Is based on universal inclusion.

Another One

It's another Monday,
Another work week starts,
Another day I don't have to commute,
Another burp and fart,

Another day spent in my pajamas,
Another liquid lunch,
Another level in this gaming app,
Hoping to win before the time card's punched,

Another news report about Covid,
Another month added,
Another battle with anxiety,
'bout what your old dad did.

Another thought,
Before Tuesday arrives,
Another day, despite challenges,
That you have faced, and yet you still survive.

The New Weird

Even a pandemic,
Couldn't keep me from you,
Except so far as I have to stay home,
Just like you have to, too,

Thank god this thing cannot last forever,
Or that's what people see,
Who look around with incredulity,
Without a virology Ph.D.

Yet still, we will all learn to live with this,
Plus the others to come,
The new normal can't be weirder than what,
Was just before this one,

So take my hand,
Tell me, how does that feel?
I have to tell you after all these months,
It would be hard to describe it as real.

Brave Old World

Now the fear is growing,
As the risks now subside,
There is security within limbo,
When all must stay inside,

But soon we will be opening the blinds,
Wipe the sleep from our eyes,
Can you really imagine returning,
To your preglobal covid-demic lives?

You may answer categoric'lly, "yes!
"This is no life at all,
"Without a job to go to everyday,
"What can a life be called?"

Well, uhm, just life,
Like what you've been doing,
Assuming you're not one of the many,
Who the economy has left starving.