Omicron

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Omicron

 

A new day

A new dawn

The desperate age of omicron

Wave after wave after wave

Prepare the hospitals

Dig the graves

 

The plague that never ends

Rolls on like an angry storm

Build your walls

Keep your distance

Find a cave and climb in

Get used to virtual existence

Resist the new resistance

 

Omicron is here to stay

It roams by wind and breeze

We pray for it to go away

But it spreads with natural ease

A self-perpetuating force

A debilitating disease

 

It is hard to keep our faith

Harder still to maintain trust

But keep our faith we will

And trust because we must

 

No matter how long it takes

Our spirits will not break

 

(Note: While the Omicron variant is

extremely contagious, whether its

effects are more or less severe is not

yet known.)

 

Africa Spared

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Africa Spared

 

It is the great mystery of life

Why some are touched by nature’s strife

The fortunate are left alone

The reasons why remain unknown

 

The continent that has suffered much

Through famine, drought, and war

The virus that has ravaged many

Largely stopped at Africa’s door

 

Some say it is the way of life

They spend much time outside

Some say their very constitution

Allows them to abide

 

We know that their good fortune

Bodes well for the planet earth

It should be studied carefully

For all that it is worth

 

We may never know the reason why

Some were spared while others died

We wonder at the mystery

And pray our own will survive

 

Austrian Lockdown

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Austrian Lockdown

 

What is happening in Austria

May come to Indiana soon

The unvaccinated are in lockdown

For all of Europe it is high noon

 

The virus is rising up again

Seems it never really went away

As the winter winds sweep in

We bow our heads and pray

 

If this can happen in Western Europe

Where precautions were surely taken

What hope is there in the heartland

Where so many are forsaken

 

There are protests in Vienna

They are “fighting for their rights”

But the virus keeps mutating

Turning days into long lost nights

 

Fight back if you can

Take care if you will

For the next wave is coming

And it’s ready to kill

Chicago Cops

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Chicago Cops

 

To serve and protect

Is a simple proposition

If a cop cannot protect the people

If a cop claims a right to harm

If a cop refuses to be vaccinated

As a matter of personal freedom

That cop cannot fulfill his promise

That cop has betrayed her basic duty

And can no longer serve

In good conscience

 

In a city blighted by poverty and crime

That so many cops are willing to

Turn their backs on the public good

Is itself a crime against all cops

A disgrace to the uniform

A stain on the badge

 

Cops are not the arbiters of justice

Nor the determiners of policy

They are soldiers in this war

And soldiers must take orders

 

If what is happening in Chicago

Is happening in other cities

It is time to rebuild from

The bottom up

 

Remember Typhoid Mary

Who claimed her rights as well

Such rights would lead us all to hell

 

Mississippi and Peru

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Mississippi and Peru

 

Peru and Mississippi

Mississippi and Peru

If you had to do it all again

What differently would you do?

 

Your answer for the cameras: nothing

Your answer before the mirror: everything

 

Take the virus seriously

Mask distance isolate and ventilate

Invest in mass vaccination

Put your best medical minds in charge

Trust the science

Keep the people well informed

A virus does not care

Who you are or where

Understand from the beginning

The best economic strategy

Is to defeat the virus

Pound the people daily

With the hard and honest truth

Bring the opposition aboard

Remove the politics

Share the credit

Erase the blame

We are all in this together

Together we will overcome

 

Denial and Rage

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Denial and Rage

 

When someone you love gets covid

You do not want to accept it

It cannot be

You took all the precautions

You did all the right things

You considered others

You watched your step

You vaccinated

You wore the mask

You dined outside

You did not attend large gatherings

 

You faltered once or twice

Is that all it took?

One simple misstep

One walk on the wrong side

Of the street

 

Some random conspiracy theorist

Some antivax zealot

Some fool without a mask

Invades your breathing space

And you contract the disease

You become the victim

You become a carrier

Of denial and rage

 

Inequity

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Inequity

 

He does not deserve this indignity

He does not deserve this disgrace

When a man of honor is victimized

The house of equity is out of place

 

We may look back on this day

And despise those who did not care

Enough to compromise their freedom

Bringing our right to life to bear

 

Are they so blind to the consequence

Of giving the virus room to grow

Of refusing to listen to science

Of being proud not to know

 

You’ve taken too many mothers and fathers

You’ve taken too many sons and daughters

The great pandemic should be over

But you believed in four-leaf clovers

 

Go away and take your family

Go away and take your friends

Thanks to you the plague lives on

Thanks to you there is no end

 

Covid's Friend

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Covid’s Friend

 

People of Florida:

Is this what you wanted?

First in the nation in new cases

First in morbidity

First in new hospitalizations

Among the last in vaccinations

 

You’re nobody’s fool

You went to the best school

(Harvard University)

You have a law degree

Yet you’ve sentenced

Thousands to death

By executive decree

 

Do you just not care?

Is this some grand design?

Get rid of all the riffraff

Leave the takers behind

 

We know you’re running for Prez

By any and all means

Nothing less is sufficient

It is your only dream

 

But is it worth the price

To be a man among men

When it comes to Covid

There is no better friend

 

Square One Part II

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Square One II

 

How long (we asked) will this go on?

How long before it’s done?

Eighteen months and counting

Now we’re back to square one

 

We’ve been pushed to our limits

Some have strained their will to live

How much more must we take

When we have little left to give?

 

It is the summer of the warming

The August sun is burning hot

We dream of cooler climates

Somewhere where we’re not

 

So the test begins again

At least now we’re more prepared

We know what we must do

But do we know enough to care?

 

We are reaching for an end

But we’ve seen this play before

When it’s over it begins again

Til we’re angry to the core

 

We’ve searched through our memories

We know there is no other way

We must let go of all our anguish

And live from day to day

 

Mandate

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Mandate

 

Freedom has its limits in a free society

You are not free to do harm to others

You are not free to seize my home

You are not free to steal my property

You are not free to invade my privacy

You are not free to spread disease

 

Freedom has its limits in a sane society

You are not free to pollute my water

You are not free to poison my air

You are not free to disturb my peace

You are not free to practice medicine

Without a legitimate degree

You are not free to spread disease

 

You have a right to speak your mind

You have a right to vote as you will

You do not have a right to make me sick

You do not have a right to kill

 

For the greater good of all

The rights of the one must fall

If a mandate is what we need

To a mandate we will accede

 

Freedom Day in London Town

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Freedom Day

 

It’s Freedom Day in London Town

One has to wonder why

Is it the freedom to live one’s life

Or the freedom to rot and die?

 

Boris the Clown is back

He shrugs with a mischievous grin:

If not now then when?

 

Here’s an answer for you Boris

When the virus is on the wane

Not a moment before then

Or have you gone completely insane?

 

But Boris is not listening

Seems he’s been here once before

He’s in quarantine again

And he seems a trifle bored

 

So Britain becomes a petri dish

For mutations to rise and spread

How will it all affect us?

Will we stop counting the dead?

 

We must wonder if it had to be

Could the people stand no more?

Will we wonder at the price and ask:

What were we fighting for?

 

Blunder Down Under

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Blunder Down Under

They’ve hit the streets in Sydney

To strike a blow for wonder

How did they lose control?

The great blunder down under

 

They locked their borders early on

To keep the deadly virus out

But it found its way somehow

And now they have their doubts

 

They thought they were a lucky nation

They didn’t need to vaccinate

Now they know that vaccination

Is the only way to escape this fate

 

They thought they did it all right

In so many ways they did

But when it came to the vaccines

They submitted a lower bid

 

So now they pay the price

And the price seems too severe

If you’re planning a trip down under

Best wait until next year

 

Vax Populi

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Vax Populi

 

Tucker Carlson is vaccinated

Sean Hannity is vaccinated

Donald Trump is vaccinated

Bret Baier is vaccinated

Laura Ingraham is vaccinated

 

The louder the voice

The greater the hypocrisy

 

There are men and women of integrity

Who do not believe in science

Who do not believe in modern medicine

Who do not believe in institutions of knowledge

Who do not believe in vaccines

 

There are men and women of integrity

Who are willing to risk their children

To uphold the validity of their beliefs

 

To them I say: go in peace

May the price of ignorance

Be no more than you can bear

 

There are others who stand

With ignorance and obstinacy

For higher ratings and appearance fees

For political contributions and security

 

To them I say:

There is a level in hell reserved for you

For the price of your hypocrisy

Can never be too great

 

Before the Vaccine

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Before the Vaccine

 

Before we were burned

We touched the flame

Before there were demons

We had no one to blame

Before we had knowledge

There was superstition

Before the smoke cleared

We had impaired vision

Before the vaccines

We had little choice

We cried in the darkness

But we heard no voice

Now that we’ve free

To live or to die

Some still choose the latter

We do not know why

It makes me crazy

All my senses unravel

Like a walk in a storm

Or footprints on gravel

Some people are stubborn

There’s no more to say

They’ll tell us we’re wrong

On judgement day

 

Finality

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Finality

 

There will always be doubt

Like the virus itself

Some trace of it remains

To haunt us with its deadly legacy

To caution and warn us

Life will never be the same

 

Yet it begins to feel normal

It is not my first thought each morning

There are times I forget

Times when the mask seems strange

Times when it feels like a movie

Times when it feels like a dream

 

We are resilient beings

It is our nature to overcome

It is our nature to survive

 

Somewhere in the folds of our minds

We know it could strike again

That place of darkness will always be

But it will not drive us insane

 

We will move on

We have moved on

Life returns to normal

And we give thanks

 

Bodies in the Ganges

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Bodies in the Ganges

 

Bodies float down the Ganges

By the dozens by the scores

The result of too many corpses

To bury or burn and mourn

 

Take care it does not happen here

It can and surely will

If we do not heed the warnings

Our cemeteries will be filled

 

We have declared victory

Just as India and Brazil did

They opened the doors of commerce

They took the highest bids

 

Now there are bodies in the Ganges

There are loved ones left forlorn

And there are leaders in Mumbai

Whom the people have come to scorn