Pandemic Sabbath
What if we all choose a time together …
Because what if the sheltering turns out to be not enough
And ceasing from acquiring
And from outside labor
And from lighting fires
And from talking too much
And from touching and loving
What if all this abstaining
Turns out to be insufficient
And the pandemic still rages
In spite of all our refraining
Demanding of us to do something more
And yet we are caged here as before
So do now precisely what?
… So what if we just choose a time together
You in your crib, I in my house,
Everyone down every block and dusty alleyway
What if we meet virtually
And we choose a moment together
What if we collectively have just had enough
And we hold our breath
The whole world together perfectly timed
Like a single small child overwhelmed, in a tantrum
We don’t know what is happening to our body
We can neither stay put nor run
So we just hold, and hold, me and you
Every person not gasping or wheezing
Just holding watching and waiting until we turn blue
Because it’s our breathing and only we can do it
Our good breath and not the virus’s
Ours, ours, ours, and you can’t get at it any more
Yet now we notice as we finally must exhale
Respiration’s the same
Yet something different’s in the air:
It’s over, we’ve survived the nightmare
And I just may tell you the tale
Of long ago when the chest and thorax of the world
Down at the equator were almost broken and heaving
And we traveled together not to dying
But to strange new place
On the far side of our breathing.
Herd Immunity
All this collective suffering should spread the news
We are one species, one humanity, one crew
We won’t survive! We’ll all die! – that’s absurd
Unless, failing to listen, we’ve thinned the heard.
My Ventilator
The wealthy are ordering up one of their own
And some handy guy’s making one at home
And the engineer is making one work for two
And who knows what’ll emerge next door?
Maybe a gizmo that’ll breathe for four
So what’s a regular person to do?
We who are happy to accept a simple workable device
A VW, or a Chevy ventilator, not a golden designer type
One used before, of course, is perfectly fine
From Germany, from China, or the Argentine
Who cares! Just find one please
Kick the tires, check the oil, plug it in
And should I need it, hook me up.
The profoundest fear across the nation:
No remedy for our suffocation.