As all the wise and good
officialdom
of every bank, every government, and
much of civil society
everywhere,
all over our overheated globe,
assure us the COVID siege is over;
and every government
commissions
Commissions
to write reports
about the next pandemic,
and which bureaucratic touch-up makeovers
will reassure their people
that everything will be
“alright,”
viruses creep like army ants through the basements of America
and the world
on their way to raucous celebrations
where they will toast these official proclamations
that all is quiet on the COVID front
with smiles, guffaws, and mutations
as they plan which million bodies
to ravage next.
Sam Friedman has published many poems in literary and political venues, two books of poetry, and numerous chapbooks. His day job is professor of Population Health at a medical school in New York City where he studies overdose and pandemics.
