Killing COVID-19

FERNANDO ESTEBAN FLORES

April 21, 2020

Pandemics befit language

& shake poetics of its cold old doldrums

Even the word sounds sanitized & safe

Distancing itself from the old-world view

Plague

Contagion

Disease

Epidemic

We’ve dealt with these Angels of Death before

The Bubonic Plague the Spanish Flu of 1918

Little children would jump rope reciting

I had a little bird,

Its name was Enza.

I opened the window,

And in-flu-enza.

Like ill-suited guests or shoddy strangers who show up

Unannounced knocking at the door waiting to

Be acknowledged admitted we knew

They were around always loitering lingering

Like zealous zombies wandering our streets

Some in full view others emerge at sundown

Still a few on the periphery of our sight

We caught a glimpse & hoped they’d go away

Out of sight out of mind

Like the rag worn cliché

& now we tout the terms “social distancing”

“sheltering in place” as if they were talismans

Or magic spells chanted like mantras

Different from what we’ve done before

Stores today packed with people trying to

Keep their distance from each other

Avoid contact of any kind wielding

Shopping carts stacked with goods

Like Achilles’s shield

To ward off unexpected blows

From irate consumers unaccustomed

To the current custom

The president blames

The previous resident

Rejects responsibility

Saying stay calm this will go away

While he castigates the world

With all his wily twitters

Hospitals pale & ail

Schools shuttered

Businesses bail

Bars & restaurants keep

Customers at bay

The stock market drops

To historic lows

Workers laid off

The streets deserted

Stray dogs growl at passing shades

Bound for Dante’s infernal inferno

Everyone self-quarantines

In the cushy solace of solitude

All sterilized & cleansed

With nowhere else to go

San Antonio poet FERNANDO ESTEBAN FLORES graduated from UT at Austin with a B.A. in English, taught secondary school writing, and was recently honored with an ELLA Award 2018 and an Arts & Letters Award 2019 from the San Antonio Public Library System for promoting literacy and education. He has multiple publications.   www.madwarbler.com