If all we had to do was wait patiently
Informed as to our place in line
And how many get taken each week
To have a sense when to expect the call
That would be a different country
Organized in a different system
With a rational approach to vaccination
Not the crazy chaos we must navigate
I got lucky getting through on a website
Crushed by thousands of page requests
One of the fortunate few not shut out
Able to get an appointment this week
But you did not and there's no telling
When it will ever be your turn
To receive a measure of protection
To feel safer around other people
We weren't about to camp out
Waiting overnight in long lines
Hoping the doses wouldn't run out
Before we got to the injection site
The phone lines busy signals
No better as an alternative
Now we set the alarm to try again
The separate pharmacy websites
The circumstance of scarcity defines
The haves and have nots condition
In this society the underlying division
Between great wealth and poverty
The pandemic death toll falling heaviest
On the poor and people of color
The very same people left waiting
Wanting a chance to get the vaccine
The privileged people gaming the system
That is fundamentally unfair to begin with
This is the ugly reality show now playing
Needing the rest of us to shut it down
