Plague Poems

As I walked down the street I found myself worrying that everyone and everything is just getting worse, but as I walked I saw a family in masks and an impromptu protest, and I reminded myself not everyone and not everything. * The 280th week… librarianshipwreck.wordpress.com/2025/07/25/pla…

To prepare for what’s coming I’ve heard that we should learn first aid, and I’ve heard that we should learn self defense, and I’ve heard that we should learn to farm, but to prepare for what’s coming I’ve heard that we must learn to take care of each other.

When she told me her throat was killing her I gently reminded her that “razor blade throat” is a symptom of one of the new variants, but she shook her head and insisted it wasn’t like that instead it was like she had swallowed glass, and in response I just said: oh.

I sent my aunt, the doctor, an article noting that “Gastrointestinal cancers are rising dramatically in people under 50,” and in response my aunt, the doctor, sent me a study on the “Possible cancer-causing capacity of COVID-19.”

In these dark times should you try to warn your friends to warn your family they may be respond by nervously asking “but what if you’re wrong?” and should they ask this calmly but firmly reply “but what if I’m right?”

Some believe the pandemic was a bookmark an odd pause but not a part of their story, others believe the pandemic was a chapter a trying ordeal but just a part of their story, and still others recognize the pandemic is a setting in which all our stories now take place.

A friend sent me an article from Time Magazine titled: “COVID-19 Made Our Brains Age Faster,” and though I wanted to reply by reminding him of the many articles I had sent him (some from years ago) that warned of the same, instead I just thanked him and told him to stay safe.

Forgive me, I do not mean to romanticize the past yes, things are bad now but that does not mean things weren’t bad then, truly, I do not mean to romanticize the past, and yet I must confess I quite miss the days when everyone I knew wasn’t sick in the summer.

As we discussed how many people we know who are currently unwell she sighed and said “there’s nothing worse than a summer cold,” and before I could stop myself I offered the retort, “summer Covid is worse than a summer cold,” and in reply she just sighed again.

If they ask you if you are planning on wearing your mask forever, tell them you know that you will not last forever, but you’re willing to do what you can to take care of others for as long as you are still here.

My employer sent an email encouraging us to conserve energy amidst this heat wave, and as I read and reread how “by working together and taking actions” we could help prevent power outages I was reminded that it is in fact possible to encourage people to help each other out.

My friend sent me a clip of a doctor saying; “This is not a respiratory virus. This virus is like cancer. This virus gets into every part of your body,” and along with the clip my friend darkly joked “so it’s not just in our heads?” and I replied “it’s not, but it’s there too.”

As we talked about this and that the academic told me “the fall is coming” and in agreement I said “I feel like the fall has been coming for years” and after a moment the academic stated “I meant the season” and after a moment I said “yeah, that’s coming too.”

I’ve heard that today is the second shortest day in recorded history, for today will be 1.34 milliseconds shorter than a normal 24 hour day, yes, today will be a shorter day and this is what I keep telling myself as I struggle to make it through another unending day.

I’m very tired, yet I persist. For the virus is not tired, and it too persists.

Some of the modelers say that right now the variant to watch is Nimbus, and some of the modelers say that right now the variant to watch is Stratus, but whichever it is it’s unfortunately clear that we are under cloudy skies.

By now you have likely heard how “Highly Contagious Variants” are driving a “COVID-19 Uptick” across multiple states, and while those variants deserve most of the blame that this society keeps pretending that the pandemic is over is driving that uptick too.

Is it a problem that Covid is back? Yes, of course, it’s a problem that Covid is back. Though unfortunately the far bigger problem, is that Covid never really left.

Alongside a comment noting that cases are rising in twenty-five states, the headline asked “Is the US in a Summer COVID Surge?” but if cases rising in twenty-five states is not proof of a summer surge, what then would proof of a summer surge look like?

On my first day back my colleague asked what my secret is, for whenever he travels he winds up getting sick but that never seems to happen to me, so I pointed to my mask, and I could tell right away this wasn’t the explanation he wanted.