(x = space)
x
x
The O in Omicron
x
Omicron
Is impressive
Like the o in omega,
I guess
Something surprising
Something final
The end is a beginning
First cases reported
How will we get sick?
How will our vaccines withstand?
The title shouldn’t be
A headline,
Something instead to tell us
It ain’t over
All of this
Be careful
And take care
Of each other
x
C L Couch
x
x
Photo by Martin Sanchez on Unsplash
x
(x = space)
x
x
A Village Takes It
x
Schools in session
Offices are open
Stores
Factories are functioning
All in the time of cholera
x
We have solutions
We blame the leadership,
So-called,
Whose message has been
Me first
Never you
x
We can only hope
Diffusion brings
Immunity
Enough to keep a planet
Going
As after any plague
x
And by the way
This is not
A Republican thing
Or a Democrat thing
Or any party
In the Italian assembly
And despots
Will be despots
Since it means
Healthcare for
Supposed elites
Never mind
The rest of us
x
For the rest of us
There are risks
There were risks
When we swallowed
The polio vaccine
x
In fact,
There are risks all
Around
More so for the rest of us
Who are the billions
Who inhabit Earth
And should inherit
x
It’s a human thing,
You know,
Starting out microbial
Affecting animals
And now us (more)
There will be a cure
Enough
x
Requiring
Behavior, practice
And that thing
You know,
Community
x
C L Couch
x
x
A woman sits with her pet in a village in Madhya Pradesh, India .
Photo by Srimathi Jayaprakash on Unsplash
Ranipur, Madhya Pradesh, India
x
(x = space)
x
x
Beadling
(pandemic time)
x
It’s Sunday
I thought it was Saturday
Maybe you’re having this problem, too
So I should think church
(good Catholic or Protestant
Christian)
And I do
Though I don’t think I’ll go
Until the year of doing nothing
Has expired
Nothing but science and care
I do what I can
Pray for them
Send bits of money
Wait
Wish it were all over
For the living to be living
More fully
Perhaps more mindfully
Again
x
C L Couch
x
x
(a beadle, church officer, bearing
a rod with a feather at one end and a heavy ball
or other weight at the other
not for adults do we spare the rod
depending on how deeply was the parishioner
snoozing, he or she got one end or the other)
x
x
x
There Are Way Too Many People Dying
There are way too many people dying
Yet we, the living, complain
Because we’re still here
With masks and keeping six feet or
Two meters apart
Staying not in a factory or prison
But at home
From where we live and work
Unless you have to go away to work,
And we thank you
And (everyone) get by hopefully without catching
Anything,
Such as the nineteenth COVID virus
We have to get outside,
And so we protest in Berlin
And politicians in Ohio
And D.C.
Hawk a malarial that not only
Doesn’t work but harms in other ways
If Madame Cleo came back
And recommended something,
I’d be more inclined to listen
This should be the year of doing nothing
I’ve said it elsewhere
I’m saying it again
This should be the year of doing nothing
But getting better
Next year we could try it
Without the disease
C L Couch
(image from Unsplash)
United Nations COVID-19 Response
Frontline. Inspired by images of exhausted doctors and nurses. Image created by Kevin Kobsic. Submitted for United Nations Global Call Out To Creatives – help stop the spread of COVID-19.
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