Stay far away from me please
My thought as you approach
Something almost everyone is thinking
When we go outside our homes.
In another time this aversion response
Seen then as a symptom of mental illness
Has become the rational way to behave
Now the whole population is affected.
Being very afraid of the invisible threat
The miasma of minuscule droplets in the air
Dispersed unwittingly by people talking
Deposited on everything we touch.
Impossible to entirely avoid exposure
But we take what measures we can
Hoping we won’t be taken ill today
Hoping we will recover if we do.
And we are the fortunate ones
Who can stay home relatively safe
Unable to look away from the terrible news
While we worry about those we love
This state of high anxiety is the new normal
That will continue for the foreseeable future
In this country when no immediate way exists
To do all that must be done to control it.
Not until the hospitals are out of crisis mode
Not until everyone symptomatic is tested
Not until all confirmed cases and contacts are monitored
Not until new cases abate for at least two weeks.
Not possible under our current government
So broken as the disaster gets ever worse
When business profits rule over people's lives
Survival demands a socialist approach.
This grim reality will slowly sink in
As the death toll touches everyone personally
The political failure to follow science dooms us
To suffer great losses until there is a vaccine.
