This too shall pass

OLD NEWS

Calamity is fairly normal.

Just read ancient Greek myth

Or any recorded human history

And feel reassured.

It is as old as word and song,

As small pox blankets,

As warfare.

Doctors, nurses and the people who clean the hospital rooms

Know blood can spatter everywhere,

Like that guy who put the block behind the 747 wheel

With his bare hand,

Drawing blue gowns into the ER room,

Sails in the wine-dark sea.

Stupidity receives no judgement here.

Refuse to listen to Dr Fauci,

Your right as an American.

Don’t fucking touch my apple pie.

Defund research, 

Disable pandemic response teams,

Have just enough staff and PPE to get by.

Economy, from the Greek for

Household Management,

In American translates as 

More important than lives,

My colleagues and friends 

Our grandparents

My own immunocompromised

Self

Bows to wealth.

Happily, it is all old news.

The plague will pass

And Hamilton will again be 

In theaters.

Late night TV hosts will wear their best suits.

We will hug,

And high-five every spectating child along the route of the New York City Marathon.

Which even before COVID-19 seemed a little dicey.

Yet absolutely irresistible.