The Pandemic Disaster Alphabet

Inspired by a time of crisis that persists

In April 2020, after a fifty-year hiatus, I began writing poetry again because it was the only form that enabled me to shape my chaotic feelings. The result, the ten-page Pandemic Alphabet Rap, wasn’t very good, but I did manage to use allusions to popular songs and even book titles. I dedicated it to the musicians and entertainers who suddenly found themselves without an audience (Zoom concerts are no substitute). I showed this poem to a few people, who appeared to be non plussed. In May 2021, I edited it down to four pages and added the other set of disasters we’re dealing with on top of the pandemic: extreme drought, raging floods, and deadly fires.

It seems humanity is in dire straits on a scale never seen before. I can’t help wondering what the next revision, in 2022, will look like.

Zeitgeist

Zeitgeist speak to us

We have survived

But we are wounded

Wary of the next

Pandemic

We can’t breathe easy

Something 

is incubating somewhere 

and we’re feeling queasy

our minds in cages

our faces masked

it’s a nightmare for the sages

Yet

Another world is being born

While we pray 

And we fight

And we mourn

Vaccination

Victory Virus Vaccine

These things are related

I dig in my Victorygarden 

where red roses bloom

for the dead

I zoom unabated

But soon I’m

anxious and mute

the vaccine race is on

you must get jabbed

ve hav vays

resistance is moot

Illusion

Infodemics & Illusions

We had warnings

We lived with delusions 

of growth & control

If this is goodbye

To the life we once knew

there’s only one conclusion

we must change our minds for real

massage out the hubris

how do you feel

Denial

This can’t be our life

So we’re drinking

Eating magic shrooms and 

Smoking weed

The day the music died

I was thinking

There’s no delight

There’s too much noise

Too many in need

And too many damn

screeds

Endgame

Everybody knows 

The ferryman will come

Everybody knows

Easter came without resurrection 

Of normal life &

April was the cruelest month for infection

We battle cataclysmic fears

while paddling without direction

on an ocean of salty tears

Trust 

Testing Testing Testing

The times they are a changing again

The virus is infesting 

Our universal tent

Truths are not self-evident

Covid testing is misleading

Every certainty is receding

Kahnemann says we’re

Thinking fast when we should be

thinking slow but we’re distracted 

 late with the rent

wondering who to trust

And when

Our life will go completely

Bust

Fear

Fear is unbound

My friends stopped coming round

We get by with a little help 

From the government 

Rules rule

How fragile we are

All alone in this together

And hope is

Crazy stoopid like

the weather

Kindness

I missed

That last kiss and

The caress of your hand

At your final bedside

Strangers held vigil

You slipped beyond my reach

I could not break the window

You are gone and I am left

Alone on a deserted beach

Love

 Love, they say, is the answer

But I forgot the question

I used to say live and let die

But I’m no longer young

I used to see life another way

used to dismiss the cost

But now I know

What a wonderful world

We lost

Music

Some days I feel so calm

On others such madness

My lizard brain is fretting 

though I smile

and every single day

Music & friends save me 

for a little while 

Noir

There’s no end in sight

every midnight

I want to scream 

Something 

Global & abusive

I hear you whisper

let’s go back

The words of the prophets are elusive

Just fade to black

Pause

On the steep stairway to heaven

Humans hunker down

The Amazon is burning hot

The drought is spreading

The fires are blazing

The floods are coming &

Nobody knows how long we’ve got

Warped Wisdom

WTF just happened

 give me some answers, please

You murmur words like

Wisdom, Water 

Warp & Woof

The pattern is eternal

We have the proof 

The wisdom of Gaia

Holds us

In a strong embrace

it just might be

Our saving Grace