Poem During the Plague: Poem 9

Harris Gardner’s  has been published in The Harvard Review; Midstream; Poets Siddur, 

Fulcrum; Chest; Ibbetson Street;  and over fifty others.  

 He has been Poetry Editor, Ibbetson Street  from  2010 to present; and  co-founder of: Tapestry of Voices and Boston National Poetry Month Festival with Lainie Senechal. He received  the Ibbetson Street Press Life Time Achievement Award in 2015;  and was honored with a Citation from the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 2015. 

Prognosis 

Today was another twenty-four 

Of anxiety and fear. 

Portals are barred against 

A cataclysmic virus on the prowl. 

Spring cleaning is second nature 

For those who are neat, sensible, mature. 

Wipes and disinfectant sprays 

Target sinks, counters, walls and doors. 

Lysol stock must be rocketing. 

Foraging can’t produce any product 

In supermarkets or other stores. 

Social lockdown and distancing six feet 

Were, at first, greeted with dismay; 

Now, folks’ thoughts are spinning 

With the buffeting news drumbeat. 

Health pundits provide cool-headed clues. 

Proper prudence should be the primary 

Prix fixe menu for the world to devour. 

Covid-19 is depleting the rolls 

Thanks to early ignorance and denial. 

Multitudes harken, at their own peril, 

To the one who views himself wisest of all. 

We should flush out the People’s Mansion 

With a surge of purifying hot water, 

A first phase to purge the precarious core; 

Then, let’s explore options for optimal cures, 

Like a vote when a favored score 

Is the foreshadowed course. 

Tomorrow, you may be less stressed. 

Cease harboring feelings of gloom and defeat. 

Stop circling the issues 

You still have a champion’s heartbeat.