Black Diamond
In this poem an enthusiastic conductor encourages a passenger on his funicular as it groans up the mountain to a most challenging ski run.
COVID-19
Control
This poem deals with China's recent efforts to control the slippery coronavirus in its latest iteration, through lockdowns and quarantines.
Appetite
In this tongue-in-cheek, yet macabre poem, I complain about how COVID-19 seems to target those who, like myself, have a weakness for overeating. This is me, stamping my feet, in protest. It seems particularly harsh, that we should, in our own best interest, cut back on eating, now. At a time when there is …
Panic and Euphoria
This poem came from reading the financial pages, where I first heard the phrases, “panic and euphoria” and “fiscal corsets.” A panic, of course, is when the stock market drops dramatically because everyone is selling and trying to get out of their overpriced investments. Euphoria is the giddiness we feel when we get a …
Puzzled
This poem came in a moment of discouragement, when I was imagining ,how much more I might have done with my many years, had I only set my mind to it. And wondering, whether I might have worked harder or faster, had I been more acutely aware of my own mortality. Such topics lend themselves …
Math
This poem is full of figures. We have become consumed with watching the numbers, especially since the Delta variant came into our lives. I came up with the idea for this poem, while watching an hour-long question and answer session on the Delta Variant on MSNBC. Many of the figures are lifted …
Pretend
This poem criticizes those that go around with blinders on, ignoring reality, at the price of endangering those they love. Thanks for coming by to read. Let’s pretend that it’s normal, That things are okay, And that masks and vaccines Are not needed, today. Let’s say, that we’re safe, And pretend that we’re …
As Dumb As Ever
A little tongue-in-cheek humor, based on a comment by sports commentator, Mike Lupica. He wrote an article in the New York Daily News called Kirk Cousins’ comment on COVID-19 protocol is exactly why every athlete should get vaccinated. Worth a read, if you want a strong refutation of the popular “personal choice” argument …
Fair Warning
Watching Morning Joe on MSNBC on August 6, 2021 (this morning) I saw an interview with an evangelical, about the outsized number of anti-vaxers, or vaccine hesitants, who are also evangelical. He said that being against vaccines and masking is a cultural thing among some evangelical groups, a sign of ones identity, of ones …
Frat Boy
I first saw the connection to fraternities in a tweet by Robert Morro (@bmorro44) on July 27, 2021, calling Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida “CEO of The Delta House.” This is my extrapolation on the theme. As many of you know, I live in Florida. I have found little more infuriating, than the positions …
Allowed
I recently read an article in the German newspaper, the Frankfurter Allgemeine, “Endlich Loslegen, #nachCorona.” (Translation: Finally getting started again, #afterCovid.) It describes the kinds of predictions people made on German Twitter, under the hashtag #nachCorona (after Corona) about what they would do after COVID died down. At least, to the point, that it …
Looking South
This poem was inspired by a heart-wrenching story in the New York Times out of Lima Peru, in which they described the plight of a fifty-year-old man, whose family fell prey to COVID in the month of May 2021. The epidemic is still running rampant in South America, where vaccines are very hard to …
Hoarding
I’m sure, I am not the first, to call attention to the greed and selfishness of Americans. That is, those, who live in these rather prosperous United States. (We in the US tend to forget that those in Canada, Mexico, Central and South America are also Americans!) But this week, with the agonizing footage …
Opportunist
On May 5, 2021, on Morning Joe on MSNBC, the US CDC Director was asked about the terrible state of affairs in India. India is currently enduring an overwhelming wave of COVID-19 infections and deaths. Director Rochelle Walensky was asked, if she was worried about current and future variants of COVID posing a threat …
Or Else (An Ode to Infrastructure)
The following is a bit of unsolicited propaganda, in favor of spending big on propping up the nation’s brittle skeleton. Contained within are several Republican trigger words, such as “resilient.” I suggest reading elsewhere if you are sensitive to such things. 🙂 A poem to infrastructure? Being the wife of a civil engineer was bound …
In the Vomitorium
This is a bit dark, a kind of a warning. In this poem, I imagine an ancient Roman vomitorium, where people eat and drink until their bodies can hold no more. This stereotype of the decadence of the late Roman empire, right before the Fall, was instilled in us early on, as an example …
Just a Suggestion
This past Friday, our mayor lifted the mask mandate in our town. Not that any of the mask mandates in Florida are particularly enforceable. The governor long ago eviscerated the power of local communities to enforce them. Still, with just 14.3% of Florida fully vaccinated, and only 26% having had at least one dose, …
The Five Hundred Thousand
Those of you who read a lot, or were forced to do so in college, may recall a poem by the Victorian, Alfred Lord Tennyson called The Charge of the Light Brigade. It features a repetitive phrase “the six hundred.” That phrase was all I could think of, as the latest toll of US …
Ice Don’t Keep
{This is a short-short story of 100 words, in response to the weekly photo challenge called Friday Fictioneers. Rochelle Wisoff-Fields is the den mother of this operation. I have participated in this challenge since May 2018, but have been absent for a while, busy with other things. Still, I always enjoy coming back, for the …