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Coronavirus, March 16, 2020

In the universe of viruses,
Corona is a perfect ornament
To hang from the Christmas tree;
A green round bubbly marshmallow
With hundreds of phallic tubes
Leading to red poisonous lips...

I keep looking for them on my white glove,
Like they could be a bed bug’s size,
To swat them away with a flyswatter
So their insides, some yellow goo,
Splatters like a squashed caterpillar

Corona is a murderer in the universe of men.
It chooses victims as does all nature-
The elderly first, then the frail and sick.
I’m suddenly considered elderly
Because all of a sudden, 60 is elderly
It’s looking for me. A conspiracy!
They predict a lot of dead people.
A lot of dead elderly people.

I have painted the door with lamb’s blood,
I have anointed my skin in rubbing alcohols.
I’ll stay in my cubby hole for six weeks
And rewrite all my poems.
Maybe write new poems, about death.

Science rules! Stay deep in your abode!
Food will be delivered, unpacked, before and after,
With methodically washed hands.
Pretend it’s a voyage in a sailing ship -
By day, stay in the cabin. Go out at night,
And stare at the stars all alone.

Now is just the first hours, first days.
The engine of civilization stops.
Every hour new edits are posted:
It’s "The Day the Earth Stood Still."
Only it’s for weeks, months...

The present feels like the high holy day,
To reflect and atone for being overweight.
The marketplace keeps their shutters shut.
The streets are naked as the spring blooms.
We look out our windows afraid to breathe
We who are over 70.

(Yet remember the young Giorgione
Visiting his beloved on her death bed of red death,
Only to succumb himself. That, too,
Was a terrible time to be alive. )

Every hour the bright and cheerful virus
Does the unthinkable and challenges another
In a winner take all.
What will I do if my friends start dying?
Let it not be you or I, be thou strong!
Do not be the one the living shall mourn.

Last few words: 
Some response to this history making event; everything in the nations capitol is shut down. Most eerie. most disconcerting. How long will I be quarantined, afraid to pet a dog in the elevator? I don't think it has settled in yet, that nothing has ever happened like this. Everyone is going to go stir crazy at home for weeks, (months?) Today is not 1918. I wonder what the poem will look like a month from now.
Editing stage: 

Comments

The next few months will indeed be something we have no past experience for. But....unless it mutates further they say it will likely be old farts like you and I who will die. But the economic recovery will also be a long time coming because this virus (likely made and released by some lab) will change and maybe even stop globalization in its tracks

when man with little knowledge of science
let go millions to heaven
there was no alternative
but to pray and not from others
NOT stay away

Today science is speedy
if the virus was created
then man will also have to find
an answer to such a fatality

be not afraid
as Carona will soon find
its own grave
try and be brave
They say
They WHO

that there are many people out there who are thinking the same things. It sounds as if it were a story from one of my sci-fi books; or a movie. Maybe they [the survivors]. will make a movie or write a book about it. I do suppose that there will be others that will try to voice what they are feeling, but I suspect that they will not put it out there as well as you have. I wouldn't have done the last lines as you did; "Let it not be you or I, be thou strong. Do not be the one the living shall mourn."
It sounds overly dramatic and false. Better that you say it in a more up to date way. Other than that, a very good story. ~ Geezer.
.

There is value to commenting and critique, tell us how you feel about our work.
This must be the place, 'cause there ain't no place like this place anywhere near this place.

And Geezer, I have learned not to dismiss comments I disagree with. If that's the way a particular reader picks something up, a distraction, it means others might feel the same, and it should stay with you.
I suppose after playing with some satires and ironies, I wanted to change the stance and end with the reality of this thing...I'm older than 70, a lot of friends, and I couldn't find another way to drive home my fear but use a biblical "thou" into it. "Winner take all" here is death for the virus in you, or your death. I guess I was a bit over dramatic, but at the same time, true to my gut. Let's see what happens in time. As Lowell said, "I don't write,I re-write"

Eumolpus
I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing
than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance
ee cummings

author comment

I understand the why of it. I too am over seventy and my wife, not far behind. ~ Geezer.
.

There is value to commenting and critique, tell us how you feel about our work.
This must be the place, 'cause there ain't no place like this place anywhere near this place.

I am nearing over 80
QUEUE behind me
younger 70's

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