Pandemic poetry served straight up.
1. LOVE IN THE TIME OF COVID-19
I wonder what you'd have said
Gabito about all this,
Were you not dead.
It's striking the elderly -
Would you think that was poetic?
Or would you say it was cooked up
In a lab - NYT bestseller style?
Either way, these days I yearn
For the time we sat quietly, you and I,
With the moonlight and the Arabian Sea,
Nonplussed by events occurring
Further than the tips of our own noses.
Specifically, will Fermina ever love Florentino?
2. THE MOTHER OF ALL INTERVENTIONS
Maybe God Herself
Staged this intervention
To expedite the epiphanies:
There is no Us and Them
No borders no nations
No money no time no nothing.
Just a small blue marble
Suspended in vast emptiness
That hosts, among other
Much more exquisite life forms,
A homicidal, delusional ape
Not completely past
All hope. Or beauty.
3. FAITH
In a small unassuming building’s
Small unassuming garden
Dwells the divine:
Sunshine from our one and only star,
A patch of green underfoot.
An oxygen-spewing Badam tree
And its fellow trees, connected,
Communicating underground,
Sharing their resources.
A shiny blue Carpenter bee,
A Red-vented bulbul,
Frangipani blossoms
And Hibiscus in full bloom.
All looking after things,
Tending to what we really need
For our collective survival.
All of nature, waiting for this to pass,
Waiting to give us another chance.
4. BABYLON
A deadly plague sweeps the land.
The earth splits open:
A toothless grin.
Howling winds, shrieking storms,
Drown out the ruthless kings
And their wicked cronies awhile.
Peasants weep, their children shiver,
Locked in boxes, asunder.
Even the Old Testament's
Unforgiving God was more subtle
In his communications than this.
5. JUDGEMENT DAY
Mask up, moron.
Disposable Eco-terrorist.
Cotton is a thirsty crop!
The weave? The weft?
Wake up, ye vaccinated sheep!
Death to thee, anti-vax freak!
Hells bells: "Density is destiny."
Even Typhoid Mary knew!
Yet here we are,
Huddled masses,
Still clutching at straws,
While SpaceX marks the spot.
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