As So Many Die
The following is a meditation on the COVID-19 pandemic. I wrote this in free verse, as neither rhyme nor meter seemed appropriate for this most discordant and chaotic disease.
As So Many Die
As so many die,
We, the living, breathe,
And walk,
And wonder.
What does the future hold?
Will I be next?
Will those I love be stricken?
It’s almost May.
The cherry trees flower.
The magnolia bloom.
Robins sing,
Their songs free of sadness,
Devoid of worry,
Bereft of terror.
Nature caries on,
a thoughtless child.
We humans rule the earth,
Yet how frail we are,
That a daemon, microscopic,
Can steal our very breath,
And so easily end
Our most delicate lives.
That daemon,
Thief that he is,
Takes from us
Acquaintances,
Friends,
Family,
Lovers.
But he steals also
Things more ethereal:
Companionship,
Friendship,
Community,
Love.
Gazing into its terrible maw,
We are all made humble.
The most illustrious
The most accomplished
The most important of us
Remain, still, in its deadly sight.
And all but the foolish
Stand in fear
Of this infinitesimal monster.
We, the living, breathe,
And walk,
And wonder.
But the brave,
they soldier on.
The compassionate,
they carry on.
They try to do the impossible.
They try to save the unsalvable.
And then they hold the hand
Of the dying stranger.
Those dying are the modern pariahs,
Contagious,
Unclean,
Untouchable.
They perish alone,
Kept from all they’ve loved,
And from all who love them.
What are we to make
Of this daemon terrible?
Punishment of an angry God
for our sins that are many?
The capricious whim of
jealous Nature ignored?
The modern Frankenstein,
the contemporary Hyde?
The fruit of a vengeful Gaia,
rebalancing the earth?
Humanity’s own penitence
for our wanton indifference?
Divine retribution for the last century
In which WE killed 100 million innocents.
Mankind’s own remorse
for our foolish hubris?
Satan’s shocking bonfire
As a show of strength?
The terrifying incarnation
Of all our collective nightmares?
The effervescence of
The evil in our own hearts?
The cruel joke
Of a laughing deity?
The culmination
Of all our fears?
We, the living, breathe,
And walk,
And wonder.
But all of these accounts
give nobility
to what’s most ignoble.
All of these
Assign the virus
A purpose,
Yet it has none.
All of these project
motives that are human
Upon the very inhuman.
The virus is nothing more
Nothing less
Than broken pieces
Of a lifeless chemical.
It has no designs
Against us.
No motive,
No quest.
It is an accident
Of nature,
A genetic orphan.
It has no goal
Beyond its own survival.
Human suffering
Is but a byproduct.
Human death,
Merely collateral damage.
It has neither malice
Nor remorse.
But of all the earth’s
Countless creatures,
Why are we singled out,
the hapless victims
Of this careless chemical?
We, the living, breathe,
And walk,
And wonder.