Notices by Plague Poems (plaguepoems@mastodon.social)

The headline asked
“Why
are more than 300 people
in the US
still dying from Covid
every week?”
but no one wants to hear it
should you answer with
“because the pandemic
never ended,”
and that (alas)
is another reason why
so many people
are still dying from Covid
every week.

I heard the commissioner
of the FDA testify:
“By the way, America
doesn’t want
Covid boosters,”
and I fear this is why
in the coming weeks
so many Americans
will experience
the unwanted symptom
of razor blade throat.

When you hear them say
(and you will hear them say)
that, yes, they have contracted
a summer flu
but they aren’t worried
because they always contract
a summer flu,
please remember
that what they are really saying
is that every summer
they contract Covid.

The reports say
one of the symptoms
of the new Covid variant
is “razor blade throat…
a sensation likened to
swallowing shattered glass
or razor blades,”
and though I’ve been told
that wearing a mask
is uncomfortable
I’m certain wearing one
is preferable
to “razor blade throat.”

I heard a doctor explain
that the anxiety
and depression
associated with long Covid
may be due to sufferers
“losing confidence in themselves
and their ability to participate
in daily life,”
but I wonder if
it is also due to sufferers
losing confidence in their society.

According to the news
US regulators now say
that annual Covid shots
for healthy young adults
and children
will no longer be
routinely approved,
but considering how many times
young adults and children
are catching Covid
fewer and fewer of them
can really be considered healthy.

As we look back
at the semester
my colleague laments
how much of it she spent
getting sick
over and over and over,
she looks at me and says:
“it’s a miracle
you didn’t get sick!”
and as I adjusted my mask
I replied: “sometimes you
have to make your own miracle.”

I know an economist
who says at this point
none of us
really know what
will happen next.

And
I know an epidemiologist
who says at this point
all of us
need to know the pandemic
is still happening.

I sent the old punk
a video clip of one
of the men behind the curtain
saying: “it’s your patriotic duty
to be as healthy as you can,”
and the old punk replied:
“they want each of us to focus
on taking care of ourselves,
because they’re terrified
of us taking care of each other.”

I asked the professor
how she responds
when people say
that by wearing a mask
she is trying
to indoctrinate her students,
and she replied
that she tells them:
she isn’t trying
to indoctrinate her students,
she’s trying to make sure
that her students
aren’t in doctors’ offices.

My colleague insists
it’s just his allergies
sure, usually his allergies
don’t give him a fever,
or a sore throat,
or a raw cough,
but it’s allergy season
so it must be allergies,
and he’s right
it is allergy season,
but unfortunately
it is also still plague season.

The old activist tells me
it would have been wise
had more of used the pandemic
to organize groups
for taking care of each other,
and when I ask her
what then we should do now,
she replies:
it would be wise for more of us
to organize groups
for taking care of each other.

A poll of US scientists found
that many of them
are looking to leave the country,
and though we can understand
their desire to get away,
it is important to remember:
in these dark times
some of us may be able
to escape the country,
but none of us can escape
from these dark times.

My friend,
who knows about economics,
warns that those in charge
have no idea
what they are doing.

My friend,
who knows about history,
warns that those in charge
know exactly
what they are doing.

Oh, my friends,
I am not sure
which of these assessments
is more frightening.

My uncle, who invests,
says don’t worry
the markets will recover,
he says we should all learn
from the pandemic:
the markets suffered
but the markets recovered,
and I suppose he is right,
but what I learned
from this pandemic
is that the markets recover
but many people never do.

If you are preparing
to stock up
for the difficult times ahead
make sure to get extra
toilet paper and beans
pet food and rice,
and also make sure
to stock up
on test kits and masks,
for the market numbers
are going down,
but the infection numbers
are going up.

It doesn’t matter
if you are not an economist,
it’s fine if “bear market”
is something you had to look up,
know it is another crisis
that dogs your steps,
in this spring’s tale you
exit, pursued by a plague
and so (with apologies to the bard)
now you also
exit, pursued by a bear.

As the economy worsens
you may come to regret
the money you spent
on unnecessary goods,
and the energy you spent
on marketable skills,
but even
as the economy worsens
please know
the time you devoted
to trying to take care
of other people
was very well spent.

I read an article which noted
“the worst manifestations
of preventable diseases
have faded
from public memory,”
but if five full years
of this pandemic
has taught us anything
it is that it is not so much
that such memories fade
as that they are suppressed.

It is understandable that you
feel unwell,
for you live in sickening times:
the state of the world
will nauseate you,
the fear for the future
will exhaust you,
the spreading viruses
will infect you,
in these sickening times
what would be worrisome
is if you felt fine.