pandemic pantoum

Everyone has opinions about how to handle the virus & variants.  I don’t want to add to fear but simply raise some questions…and experiment with pantoum form.

health police grab power again
new variant of covid is here
now all of you must listen!
media frenzy feeds the fear

virulent variant of covid is here
we hide faces behind our masks
media frenzy feeds the fear
authority is what they grasp

hiding faces behind our masks
we bare arms for vaccination
will the authority they grasp
control scared population?

twist bare arms for vaccination
each breath given permission
is goal control of population,
keep everyone in submission?

to breathe we ask permission
if only covid would listen!
can’t keep it in submission
as variant grabs power again.

________________________________________

The pantoum is a poetry form from Malaysia and repeats lines like an incantation going forward and back again. It is written as quatrains with ABAB rhyme scheme. The stanza lines follow a pattern: 1-2-3-4, 2-5-4-6, 5-7-6-8, 7-3-8-1. I changed repeated lines a bit.

pandemic fallout

Screen Shot 2020-12-31 at 11.30.53 AM

 

isolation
frays nerves
as relationship
thins

separation
fractures hearts
so socially dis-
tanced

emotion
roils beneath
an obfuscating
mask

frustration
muddles mind
in ubiquitous
protocol

expectation
within withers
when hope dis-
appoints

 


Incredulously, I may not visit my 87-year-old father as he struggles with Covid-19.  It seems the protocols are as deadly as the pandemic as many elderly have suffered from the fallout as much as the disease. 

a time for lament

 

spirits sag sluggish

our attitudes apathetic

people lie dying but we

are numbed by numbers

so we adjust our masks

try to control catastrophe

normalize the abnormal

turn off doom of news

cannot shut out reality

of one’s own mortality

seems life is too short to

realize all our dreams

of apocalyptic nightmare

social events cancel

celebrations zoom in

at least we can distract

ourselves with technology:

mind games of (anti)social

media, victims of porn

big bureaucracy grows

as the economy slows

churches shut down

yet abortion services

considered essential

we truly are sick

 

 

 

 

hindsight is 2020

Linking to Linda’s fearless paint chip poetry prompt…I used all the colors 🙂  Also, check out dVerse poetics where Bjorn invites us to write on this time of the plague.


 

perhaps, looking back, we
may possibly be tickled pink
to experience the good fortune
of living through the apocalypse—
not of destruction, but revelation,
which sharpens iron, unveiling
nuts and bolts of wiser choices
like bright sunburst in your eyes;
the sweet ’n sour of life’s losses
purges the palate (and palette)
even as it washes away our
fragile sand castle dreams.

 

Screen Shot 2020-04-05 at 8.17.32 PM

paint chip samples

look up in pandemic

fusion-medical-animation-rnr8D3FNUNY-unsplash

 

such times of great loss can open our eyes

to see truth more clearly and recognize lies

will you find any comfort in political ties?

 

a plague is upon us, mutant Covid-19

streets almost empty, few people are seen

how can we possibly wash our hands clean?

 

ashes to ashes, we chant mournful tune

whoever thought they would die so soon?

“barn’s burnt down, now i can see moon.”

 

in night’s deepest darkness, the Light brightly shines

to show us the path in these difficult times:

“Do not be afraid…because you are Mine!”

 

will we humble ourselves, even kneel down to pray

asking God to forgive our proud wandering ways?

may He grant us his mercy and restore us today.

 

 


Linking to dVerse Poets pub where Mish encourages us to write on this quote:  “Barn’s burnt down, now I can see the moon” – Mizuta Masahide. 

Photo by Fusion Medical Animation on Unsplash.