Virus

LARRY D. THOMAS

May 22, 2020

Sub-

micro-

scopic germ.

Raindrop-pulsed.

Donged

with bird cry.

Though it multiplies

exponentially

in a living

cell, we still debate

whether it's even

a living organism.

In its paradise

of dormancy,

swathed in the chartreuse

gauze of shade

deep in the untouched

sanctum of the rain,

it looms

a dark confidence

in the violence

of potential,

braced for disturbance

to plague the human race.

LARRY D. THOMAS, a member of the Texas Institute of Letters, was privileged to serve as the 2008 Texas Poet Laureate. He has published several award-winning and critically acclaimed collections of poetry.  Thomas will be the featured poet in a forthcoming issue of the Delta Poetry Review.