The Blight That United Us
With the legs of a thief, the plague came,
And victims from the living spectrum
Fell into a feverish vacuum
Rivaling the fires of a crematorium
As the strangling pain of suffocation
Wrung their lungs.
With the legs of a thief, the plague came
Giving us the obsession
Howard Hughes knew
By stealing our option to go ungloved,
By stealing our partiality to be unmasked,
By imprisoning us in paranoia
Behind physical and emotional bars.
With the legs of a thief, the plague came.
For that time, there were pleas to something divine.
Every sphere of the atmosphere could hear
Petitions for salvation.
With the legs of a thief, the plague came.
Nonetheless, many blest the first responders
And hospital workers
Stationed in adversity-drenched trenches
Who provided the tests and medicine
When certain politicians only shared a lot of wind
From their chins.
With the legs of a thief, the plague came,
And people spoke of the pandemic in the past tense,
Waiting for a time hence
Where there is no scourge,
And fewer viral lives will emerge.
Bob McNeil__
