Notices by Plague Poems (plaguepoems@mastodon.social)

I hope you are right
yes, my friend,
I hope you are right
when you say:
that these will be
the longest four years
of our lives,
for if four years from now
we can look back and say
that they truly were
the longest years
of our lives,
it will have meant
that we survived them.

I know, my friend,
that you are exhausted
from trying
to convince them
that they should care
about other people,
but keep trying
oh please, my friend,
keep trying.

When I asked
for their analysis
my friend
(who has read theory)
quoted Gramsci:
“The old world
is dying. And
the new world
struggles
to be born: now
is the time
of monsters.”

So, my friends,
in this time
of monsters
stay human
oh, my friends, please
try to stay human.

My friend,
before you head to the polls
make sure you are ready:
do your research,
pack a book,
charge your phone,
and please, my friend,
put on a mask,
for I know you are sick
of this election,
but it would be a shame
if participating in this election
made you sick.

I asked my aunt, the doctor,
how worried I should be
about H5N1
being found in pigs,
and in response she asked
if I knew the comic
with the dog in a hat
sitting in a burning room
saying “it’s fine,”
and when I asked
what that had to do
with H5N1 in pigs
she said: “it’s swine.”

After class ended,
a student approached
and asked if I was planning
on wearing my mask
for the whole semester,
and though I wanted to ask
the student if they had noticed
how many of their peers
were currently out sick or
were coughing in class,
instead I just said: yes.

As I picked up my prescription
the pharmacist asked
if I wanted
a flu shot or covid booster
and when I told her
I had already had both
she asked me
she practically begged me
to encourage my friends
to go and get them too,
so here I am, dear friends,
encouraging you.

I asked my aunt, the doctor,
about the NIH study
which found that “COVID-19
increased risk
of heart attack, stroke
up to three years later”
and my aunt, the doctor, replied
that she worries by “up to”
what they really mean is “for at least.”

I keep hearing people say
that no one deserves
to suffer or die
when a disaster strikes,
and I agree
oh, of course, I agree,
I just wish that more
of the people who say this
were willing to take precautions
so fewer people
will suffer and die
in this disastrous pandemic.

When they ask you
(and they will ask you)
why you are wearing a mask
take advantage of the fact
that it is October
and tell them that you
are on your way
to a Halloween party
and that you are dressed up
as someone
who cares about other people.

I keep hearing
that voters are worried
oh, they are very worried,
about the future,
but as I watch
a hurricane approach,
as I stare at
bombed out cities,
as I look on
while the pandemic
enters its tenth wave,
I will admit
that I am worried
oh, I am very worried,
about the present

An open note to the strangers
who keep telling me
to stop writing these:

I understand that you hate
reading these terrible lines,
but for what it’s worth
please just know that I hate
how this ongoing pandemic
means I have to keep writing them.

I asked
the meteorologist
and he told me
that every place
is now a hurricane zone.
 
I asked
the epidemiologist
and she told me
that every season
is now covid season.
 
I asked
the ethicist
and they told me
that every one of us
must take care
of everyone else.

I ask my cousin
how the school year is going
and she says that everyone
students, teachers, staff,
is always out sick,
and when I ask her
what the school is doing
to protect students
from the virus
she responds that her school
is only interested
in protecting students
from books.

After the meeting
the department head asked
how much longer
I was planning on masking for,
and though I wanted to say:
that it is strange to ask someone
how much longer
they plan on caring
about other people for,
instead I just reminded him
that he asks me this every week.

My aunt, the doctor,
keeps sending me studies
about how this virus
has damaged people’s brains,
so in reply I told her
that I am more worried
about what this virus
has revealed about our hearts,
and so my aunt sent me a study
about how this virus
also damages people’s hearts.

They know better
than to say
they aren’t willing
to inconvenience themselves
to protect other people,
so instead they say
the pandemic is over
and everything is back to normal,
an accidental admission
that in this society
far too many of us
see protecting others
as abnormal.

When the history
of last week is written
few historians will note
that it was the fifth in a row
in which the virus claimed
more than a thousand lives,
and it is precisely because
the history books
will not record this
that you must remember it.

In our desperation
to forget
that this pandemic
ever happened
we keep forgetting
that this pandemic
is still happening.

I learned to teach online,
and I attempted sourdough,
I watched too much television,
and I tried to work out at home,
I had several
COVID “lockdown things”
but the only one that stuck
the only one that really stuck
was believing
that we must do what we can
to protect each other.