Poem During the Plague: Poem 41

Elizabeth Wolf

Elizabeth S. Wolf ’s recent books are the Rattle Chapbook Did You Know? (Rattle, 2019) and When Lawyers Wept (Kelsay, 2019). Elizabeth’s poetry appears in multiple journals & anthologies and has been nominated for several Pushcarts. Her first haibun was a winner in the Third Wednesday 2020 Poetry Contest.

The Cameras Turn Off When the Press Conference Ends

Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o'clock in the morning. 

— TS Eliot, The Hollow Men

Between the droplets and the mask

Falls the shadow.

Between the test and the results

Falls the shadow.

Between the truth and the tweet

Between the rabble and the rage

Falls the shadow.

Between the forecast and the lonely

Lonely drowning death;

Between the cold concrete wall and the

Lowing of refrigerated trucks

Falls the shadow.

This is the way the world ends.

This is the way the world ends.

Not with a bang but a bluster.