{You may have heard the phrase, “Pretty please, with sugar on top!”
Children use it most. When begging for sweets, or asking to have something that is forbidden.
Sometimes I feel that the public officials, who are in charge of getting citizens to comply with Coronavirus best practices (such as wearing masks, social distancing, and hand-washing,) are too timid.  They request, when they should command.
Perhaps they belong to the school of Mary Poppins, who says, “A spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down.” Maybe they are “asking nicely,” because, as everyone knows, “You can catch more flies with honey, than with vinegar.”
However, as the virus escalates, this method seems more and more wrong-headed. You know it’s bad, when even Southern state governors are starting to issue mandatory mask orders. This is a great relief to those of us, who think that full compliance is our only way out of this mess.
But we still await a universal, nation-wide mask order. Or any clear, strong, national mandates, not phrased in the form of a “recommendation.”
We could blame this delicate approach on the odd federal/state system we have. Or, on popular conservative philosophies, which drive decision-making, like water, down to its lowest level.
The other day, Florida clocked 10,000 new cases. At this point, quibbling over jurisdiction seems dangerous.
Phil Murphy, the governor of New Jersey, a state faring far better than my own. referred to those, who were flouting the COVID-19 rules, as “knuckleheads.”
That’s another expression that I haven’t heard in long time. But boy, does it fit!
Speaking of quibbling… I have been informed by my engineer husband, that ripples on a pond are sinusoidal, rather than exponential. That is, the shape of the wave they create, out from the center, is a sine wave, with humps and valleys.
As I wrote this poem, I was thinking more in terms of the increase, in the size of the circular impression, that the wave creates on a pond’s surface. I was imagining a pebble, creating at first a tiny circle, which then spreads out larger and larger, to encompass the entire surface of the pond.
This increase in area, my husband admitted, might be something closer to exponential. But I hope I will not be held strictly accountable for the poem’s mathematical precision. 🙂
Stay safe out there! And thanks, for coming by to read.}
It’s highly recommended.
It’s better if you do.
Please, do not be offended.
We all depend on you.
We do not mean to irk you,
Not here, to pick a fight.
It’s not a vast conspiracy
To trample on your rights.
It’s better for the country.
It’s better for the world.
If everyone would do their part…
Forget what you have heard.
We’re all in this together,
This existential fight.
We can’t afford to split the ranks
By flanking left and right!
The growth is exponential,
Like ripples on a pond.
A single splash to start with, soon
A hundred thousand strong—
How can we hope to stop it?
It brings us to our knees.
Without a cure or treatment,
We are begging, pretty please…
It’s highly recommended,
It will save a life. Or two.
Just put a mask on, knucklehead!
We all depend on you.
Copyright 2020 Andrea LeDew
{To get my first impression of Coronavirus, as it came barreling towards us, early in 2020, read Horsemen.}
I am so with you on this that if I say anything more there will be cursing and incendiary invective involved. God help us all.
Id better put my flame-retardent jacket on! Sorry to provoke you, Liz. Breathe. 😊
Breathing . . . 🙂
“Knucklehead” is one of my favorite words. A friend of mine in his sixties, who grew up in Tampa, Fla., prefers “cheesehead,” but I’ve never liked that one much.
I like the variation “chuckehead” as well.
When I read it, the voice in my head is my father’s. It’s yet another creative expression of a generation that studiously avoided swearing, at least in front of children.
This article lists one origin story for the term as a character in US military publications, who illustrated what not to do during WWII.
https://www.thehairpin.com/2013/05/etymological-origins-of-words-related-to-insults/
I’m not sure I’ve ever heard the word chucklehead. It seems a bit tame, like “a little goofy.” Knucklehead may have stood the test of time because it’s similar to “bonehead,” but more fun to say!