There is no element of surprise with a quarantine,
No understudy to take your place,
Masks and eye protection have been ordered.
They lay in cartons on warehouse shelves,
They have been here for months – perhaps years.
In Puerto Rico, I.V. bags caught the great gusts of wind,
Tore holes through walls and forest,
Let the hurricane tumble everything into a mass of mess.
One hurricane, one response,
Suddenly the world was minus needed medical equipment.
Leadership leads.*
They do not go home on an early recess.
They do not haggle over ins and outs.
They put on a mask, gloves, eye wear –
Enter the zone of terror and lead.
I’m waiting.
_______________
* Rep. Griffin, State of Missouri: “One of the things we are doing about the coronavirus is we are going on recess a week early.”
President Donald Trump in January: “No, not at all. We have it [the pandemic – Coronavirus 19] totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.”
Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C. [after senators were briefed about the spread of coronavirus and some of them dumped their stocks ahead of the market crash]: “We’re better prepared than ever before to face emerging public health threats.”
| Copyright © 2020 by Michael H. Brownstein Michael H. Brownstein’s volumes of poetry, A Slipknot Into Somewhere Else and How Do We Create Love?, were published by Cholla Needles Press in 2018 & 2019, respectively. |
A masterful poem of despair. Only in the details do we get the whole picture.
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Thanks, Bob, for your kind words.
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