Love in the Time of Corona
(I wonder, really, how the beer is doing)
It’s not a good time
To be sick with something else
Even though it is
I mean, the current, awful thing
Is still untreated (though
there are indications)
And a sinus infection can be
Treated
I talked with my p-a
Because we can’t visit face-to-face
It would have been a video chat
Except my sister whose machine
This was
Dislikes the video component of her
Work and so disable the parts
On this computer so that they cannot
Work again,
And I don’t blame her
So we talked, Emily the p-a and I
I got my usual scolding for not doing
Everything I should be doing
(I’m not brave as much as I’m poor),
And I agreed to be taking everything along with
The new thing
Getting some kind of cuff to track
My pressure and my pulse, which
Must be worse for everyone
Just now
Plus the reward of an antibiotic,
Which is how it feels to me even though she
Dangled nothing as a prize
So maybe by the end of day
I’ll be resupplied and newly supplied
The stress will be better, my eyes,
And the infection
(better for infection meaning gone)
Be as well as I can be with
Everything ongoing
C L Couch
with thanks and apologies to Gabriel García Márquez
Love in the Time of Cholera – Wikipedia
Love in the Time of Cholera (Spanish : El amor en los tiempos del cólera) is a novel by Colombian Nobel prize winning author Gabriel García Márquez. The novel was first published in Spanish in 1985. Alfred A. Knopf published an English translation in 1988, and an English-language movie adaptation was released in 2007.
Photo by Stéfano Girardelli on Unsplash
Native American guardian totem
clcouch123 
April 20, 2020 at 1:00 pm
Oh I love this in so many ways. First I adored the book Love in the Time of Cholera, so I love your play on words with the Corona in the title. And I so understand your struggle with being sick but not with IT, or presumably, although how do we know if we haven’t been tested? As you know I too have been sick (supposedly with allergies) since March 5, and have had the virtual visit, but I never got any antibiotics, so nothing was dangled as a prize. There’s no cure anyway, for either allergies or coronavirus, so I guess there is nothing to do but wait it out. I love the part about getting the usual scolding – I know that all too well: take calcium and Vitamin D, watch my cholesterol, floss my teeth, or better yet, use the water pik. Take care, Christopher, and I hope you’re on your way to healing. 🙂
April 20, 2020 at 10:43 pm
You’re right, of course, how do we know? I had a phone conversation with the doctor’s office (my computer, thanks to my sister, can’t do the video-casting). I guess she agreed about the sinus infection, because I was prescribed with an antibiotic. Halfway through the course, now. But, yes, there are allergies as well (for me, too). The issue of testing maddens me, because it should be a matter of course. There are a number of folk I know by now who could be assured, or not, regarding the virus. While politicians (all of them) are fighting about how much to help or whom or not, people honestly are dying. Our nation should be better than this. I hope that someday it is.
In the mean time, Cathy, I hope you get well and stay there, free from the contagion, with all the rest of my friends and family who feel physically uncertainly.
April 24, 2020 at 2:58 pm
I agree that testing should be a matter of course, Christopher. Our leaders should be getting every pharmaceutical company on board to make as many tests as possible and distribute them everywhere. Without widespread testing, any opening of the economy is premature.
I just saw my doctor virtually yesterday, and she also suggested I might have sinusitis. Who knows if she’s right, but she went ahead and prescribed antibiotics. I just started yesterday. If I get no relief, then at least that can be ruled out.
I hope our nation will be better than this as well, but it’s never going to be as long as our incompetent and narcissistic president is in office. I hope you, and all of us, stay healthy, and hopeful in the midst of all this chaos and uncertainty.