COVID-19 poem

My COVID-19 poem:

COVID-19
By LB Sedlacek

It’s like when we were kids
the Polio scare
we had to stay in our yards
my Uncle tells me
I call every so many days to
check on him, he lives far away
there are jokes about how clean
everyone’s homes are now, how
great their yards look, or flowers or
plants, but you have to admit the
air is clear, the flowers glitter with
their perfume smells, and we will
all enjoy fresh produce from our
gardens, still
we wear masks to go out in public,
at least we should, and go out only
for essentials, but what is
essential to you may not seem so
essential to me, vacuuming your car,
probably not, washing your car,
probably not, flying a bi-plane
around in circles, probably not
and what about food and other items
why are they so hard to get, what
are you doing with all that
toilet paper you aren’t sharing anyway,
what about bread, flour, milk, eggs
do you need that much, and then there’s
the virtual life, some working from home,
if you aren’t essential, are you meeting in
your PJ’s, listening to sermons in your PJ’s
and then you can’t panic, you can’t worry
if there will be enough masks, if there
are enough gloves, if there are enough
gowns, if personal protective equipment
is enough, if it will ever be enough
so stop reading articles about it, and
stop watching TV about it, don’t listen
to the news, go out for exercise, you can
it’s essential, and make things, yes
make your own food, your own hand
sanitizer because you can’t find it either,
and don’t be bored, you should never
be bored, if you are you need something
good and real to occupy your time, make
art, create art, be art, and write or read
don’t dwell on the untold the unreal
because this is really happening, no
Zombies or Aliens from another planet,
you need to train yourself to
learn the proper way to dispose of gloves
so you aren’t spreading germs around
whatever you do, count each second as
one that you never had before and look
forward, because one day this will be just
another poem about how things used to be
my Uncle told me about how chocolate
candy was rationed and you could
only buy one bar at a time, back in wartime
but one of the store owners liked him, it was
the only store in town, and he’d save a bar
for him, put back one for him to have
and we are fighting a war again but
not against each other
because this is a biological virus war
we are fighting and one day we will win!

Copyright LB Sedlacek 2020
www.lbsedlacek.com