We Got Lucky

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

We Got Lucky

 

We pushed hospitals to the breaking point

Exposed the weakness of our senior care

Watched the president create events

of mass infection, insult the medical profession,

contract Covid, survive through extreme

measures and intense care, only to pronounce

himself superman, the great and invincible,

and advise us not to be afraid…

 

Only a million Americans died

 

We got lucky

We got lucky that the covid roulette shuffle

settled on a variation that is virulent but

not particularly lethal

 

We got lucky

We got lucky that medical science kept up

with the process of transmutation

 

We got lucky when we elected a new

president who took the virus seriously

 

We’re still lucky

Because the virus is not done

Because masses of people still

have not be vaccinated

Because even more people have

not been boosted and reboosted

Because winter is coming

and the virus is waiting

 

We got lucky that Covid 19 is not

the Black Plague or the Spanish Flu

 

We got lucky this time

Next time (there will be a next time)

With so many people in denial

With so many people believing

they can wish away a plague

With so many people having learned

the wrong lessons

Next time we may not be lucky

 

After all

Only a million Americans died