Revised Poem: LIKE IT ISN’T HAPPENING

 

The jackhammer pounding 

Of government, industry, media

Repeat the same propaganda:

Get back to normal 

Go back to work

It’s mild, they say

Five days at home are enough

 

We haven’t licked this disease yet

Hell, there’s no Omicron vaccine until maybe March

People are filling hospital beds again

But by all means, reclaim normal

We’re giving away half our N95 stockpile

Only four tests a month via USPS

Ready or not, we’ll tempt you to 

Go back to the mall, hang out, shop

We might put up warning signs

But we’re not the mask police

Be normal again

But don’t blame us when you get sick

 

 

 

New Poem: ONE MORE LOCKDOWN

 into the submarine again

 doing my best to stay clear 

 of the bodyjacking Delta and Omicron

 seeing just one other person

 unless it’s time to leave for provisions

 staying clear of those grocery aisles 

 where people still take off masks

 to talk on their cell phones

 >

 thanks to a belligerent one-third of a nation

 we’re going into year three of unnecessary hell

New Poem: What Will I Do Today (Omicron Edition)

Wake up mid-morning 

Make a list of what is needed

Decide what necessities are nearby 

Put on my tight fitting N95 mask

Erect a window for only necessary pursuits 

The window must have exact proportions 

Because there are only a few non-peak hours

>

Mid-afternoon , return home

With mild fatigue from two hours activity

Take my doses of maintenance medication 

Think about tomorrow 

Hope for a better year to come

New Poem: FAREWELL 2021 RAMBLE

 it’s all over now as we continue to live in a house divided which cannot stand as it is but one-third of a nation still thinks they’re doing just fine thank you and yes it was the kind of a year (as Mel Torme used to sing on a nostalgic TV show) where people in government made unforced errors regarding the spread of coronavirus variants and kept their jobs and the president at least got infrastructure passed but voting rights for all was deemed something lesser, perhaps something to fundraise off of this year until the midterms arrive and don’t forget the fundraising off of let’s have a majority of Democrats who will still most likely default to Oh Dear! What Will the Republicans think?

meanwhile the sonic firework booms detonate outside and some of us are ready to hunker down one more  time and stay in our fallout shelters until both January and/or Omicron ends

how well or poorly will we fare for this the second full year of living with instead of vanquishing plague

New Poem: RED TO ORANGE AND BACK TO RED

 it’s springtime 

 it’s the annual celebration of Resurrection 

 it’s the local supermarket telling customers:

 sanitize your carts your own damn self

 it’s all the beach towns eager for spring break $

 get as many college kids on the piers as possible 

 before the media optics look too bad

 and we have to limit access and hand out masks

 >

 on the West Coast,

 we read about infection spread in the Midwest

 but we—again—want normal before we’re ready

 begging for a few more gallops before the storm clouds gather

  

New Poem: RIFFING ON FERLINGHETTI

 did the fun thing

 made the love thing

 tried to get the hang of the work thing

 spent the last year on the lockdown thing

 then the smiling mortician appeared

 telling me I had a disease 

 this disease could be held at bay

 for a few years perhaps 

 before the house wins

 and my affairs demand ordering

 >

 how best to make the most of what remains,

 I think to myself 

as the smiling mortician drives away

THE REOPEN THE ECONOMY COVID CIRCLE GAME

 Inspired by the Joni Mitchell song:

 Today the governors and the mayors sing open up fast

 Masks peel off in Texas, indoor restaurant service in NY and CA

 No longer fearful of potential spread and variants

 Looking the other way from falling stars

 >

 And the coronavirus still goes round and round

 No way to keep it curbed will be found

 When White Republicans won’t bare their arms

 And we enter a second year with potential for great harm

 

 

 

New Poem: FAREWELL 2020

 farewell 2020

 the year where someone scratched

 the tone arm hard across the favorite record

 with a rrrrrrrrrrrppppp sound

 and everything changed

 >

 farewell 2020

 the year where the Republican adage 

 government is best that governs least

 proved to be a deadly lie

 leave it to the states made everything worse

 >

 may 2021

 be the year where we don’t read these words:

 we don’t have 60 votes

 full vaccinated immunity not until 2022

 no federal charges filed against Donald Trump

New Poem 310,095

 cannot cancel weddings

 will not close restaurants

 must reopen strip clubs

 fear makes people dance to death

 wearing economic panic like an Elizabethan Collar

 as Steven and Mitch slice a pittance of personal stimulus in half

>

 watch glossy old fashioned Christmas on Hallmark

 stay home, wait for your vaccination turn

 think of loved ones for the rest of the year

 instead of joining the covidiots determined to

 stay on the ocean liner, denying it is sinking

 

Why the Los Angeles County spread may not slow down enough

 After days of advance notice, here’s Los Angeles County trying to balance controlling the increased spread of Coronavirus and continuing hospitalizations plus deaths with the no doubt forcefully stated reluctance to return to springtime closures from various businesses.  Essentially, much of this requires people to be on the honor system between November 30th and December 20th.  Given what looks to be a post-Thanksgiving uptick in infections and deaths plus Trump/Fox News-turbocharged encouragement of recklessness in the cloak of observing traditions, Los Angeles County is in for a rough three weeks. 

[Quoted from DEADLINE article]

Here are details about the stricter limits on L.A. County residents that will begin Monday as a result of a fifth consecutive day of 4,500 or more new cases of Covid-19:

• Gatherings: all public and private gatherings with individuals not
  in your household are prohibited, except for church services and protests,
  which are constitutionally protected rights.
• Occupancy limits at various businesses; all individuals at these
  sites are required to wear face coverings and keep at least 6 feet of distance:
• Essential retail: 35% maximum occupancy;
• Nonessential retail (includes indoor malls): 20% maximum occupancy;
• Personal care services: 20% maximum occupancy;
• Libraries: 20% maximum occupancy;
• Fitness centers operating outdoors: 50% maximum occupancy;
• Museums galleries, zoos, aquariums, botanical gardens operating outdoors: 50% maximum occupancy;
• Mini-golf, batting cages, go-kart racing operating outdoors: 50%
  maximum occupancy;
• Outdoor recreation activities all which require face coverings (except for swimming) and distancing: Beaches, trails and parks remain open; gatherings at these sites with members outside your household are prohibited.
• Golf courses, tennis courts, pickleball, archery ranges, skate parks, bike parks and community gardens remain open for individuals or members of a single household. Pools that serve more than one household may open only for regulated lap swimming with one person per lane. Drive-in movies/events/car parades are permitted provided occupants in each car are members of one household.
• Schools: All schools and day camps remain open adhering to reopening protocols. K-12 Schools and Day Camps with an outbreak (3 cases or more over 14 days) should close for 14 days.
• Closed nonessential businesses/activities:
• Playgrounds (with the exception of playgrounds at childcare and schools;
• Cardrooms;
• Restaurants, bars, breweries and wineries remain closed for in-person dining and drinking because of the high rates of transmission in the community, as customers are not wearing face coverings, which results in  an increased chance of transmission of the virus. Restaurants, wineries and breweries remain open for pick-up, delivery and take-out. Breweries and wineries remain open for retail sales at 20% occupancy.

PANDEMIC RAMBLE #2

 first it was the NBA championship then it was the World Series and there was also Halloween and don’t forget Trump scaring some of America including his MAGA followers into standing in long lines to vote and soon it will be Thanksgiving and how can some people bear to be apart from family members and later Christmas will come and how can some people bear to be apart yet again from family members and it’s just family members in the house and they’ll say they don’t need masks because they know everyone there and they don’t know anyone who has the virus and someone will mention the Governor too scared of temporary lockdowns and how he bent the rules he wanted others to obey and observe and someone else will say it’s God’s Will if they catch the virus and too many people will sit together, eat and talk for far too long and roll the dice with their own lives and whoever they come into contact with that isn’t family

my home town still has high school football games in the midst of the virus and from what I hear people aren’t wearing masks and it’s a small town in what they call Texoma which is where Texas and Oklahoma are separated by the Red River and maybe they justify no masks by not living in a city and choosing to live their lives and roll the dice and God’s will and all things related to that, though some of them go to the mall in the nearest city to shop and roll more dice on their and other people’s health since the small town has very few businesses to speak of

someone posted a meme on Facebook where Lady and The Tramp are glum and sad because their Italian restaurant has plexiglass dividers and Lady and The Tramp are both covered by plexiglass domes and they can’t share a strand of spaghetti and I think to myself THIS ISN’T FUNNY

we get COVID-19 fatigue which is another way to say we lack faith in a better future and aren’t willing and able to be considerate to ourselves and others until that future arrives

as I wrote once before, people made it through World War II with the rationing of food and gasoline and no new cars to buy and that lasted for over three and a half years

in 2020, we yell, we throw masks on the ground in parking lots and pack way too many people inside a house just because it’s easier to stick your tongue out at notions of sacrifice, survival, science and a kinder, more considerate world

Second Version: PAGE TURNING ON THE RED HIGHWAY

Trump turns the page faster than Obama did with George W.
stomp that accelerator and turn your head from dead/dying
the president doesn’t want to answer for mistakes made,
powers unused, reluctance to lead by example,
and, of course, no face coverage except in private
only grudgingly because president can only defer so much

>

getting COVID-19 doesn’t change anything 

wife and youngest son getting it doesn’t matter enough

cocktail of medicine ordinary people don’t receive 

then back to the superspreader campaign trail

with the same dangerous applause lines

about how it’s politically correct to wear a mask

and open up America so the herd will think

it’s headed towards immunity while they’re 

on their way to too-early graves

>

the end of this poem can be written by you on 11/3

vote for science over endless plague

New Poem: MIKE GOES TO KINSTON

 it’s Desperation Time

 what’s a few more potential infections 

 it’s raining

 maybe the raindrops will dilute covid droplets

 I’m the good soldier

 doesn’t matter about my sick staff

 don’t want to cancel and go home

 won’t make nice with The Lincoln Project

 just want to be a stoic kinder gentler bigot

 hold on to the MAGAs I secretly deplore

 when I run for the top spot in 24.

New Poem: WHY WE ARE STILL FAR FROM NORMAL

 getting too used to rebellion against common science 

 battle whine of I won’t live this way

 getting too used to not caring about others suffering

 no tears shed for the dying with only health care workers 

 being the ones to see them off prematurely

>

you’ll go ahead and invite your friends over

for a mask free living room jamboree 

and snicker at the roommate who shelters in a motel

so he won’t risk missing work and losing pay

>

the long cold winter is coming

the end of this poem can only be written by you

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes offers a Coronavirus plan.

 Via Twitter:

OK, so from my interviews with a ton of epidemiologists over the last bunch of months, here's a pretty straightforward plan to suppress the virus and get the US to something like, say, 90% of normal life. Three steps!

1) Mask Up: Short of a national order (which strikes me as tough, enforcement-wise) getting all governors to issue state-wide mask orders would be enormously helpful. Messaging is vital. CDC data shows how important AZ's order was in suppressing its summer outbreak.

2) Bar Rescue: Have the federal government pay every last bar, restaurant, nightclub, theatre and concert venue to stay closed for the next nine months. You'd remove *enormous* pressure to reopen things that aren't safe, and it probably pays for itself.

3) National Test, Trace and Surveillance: This is the most complicated to [set] up, but one way to think of the goal is: what if every place people had to congregate was like the NBA bubble? A number of universities have used this approach and it's...worked!

And that's it! Those three things: masks, pay high-risk businesses to stay closed, massively ramp up testing. We could avoid tens of thousands of deaths and have something much closer to our normal lives.

It's not easy, but it's also not rocket science. It's doable and our federal government is actively choosing to not do it. And not just to not do it, to actually embrace the opposite approach, to promote actions and policies that mean *more* people contract the virus. 

All of this impotent wishcasting at this point. Obviously, it's not gonna happen because Donald Trump is president and the Republican Party supports him and controls the senate and they very much do not care how many people die. They just don't.

PANDEMIC RAMBLE

 Some micro and macro freestyle on the world since March:

 https://youtu.be/V-JxlQe6zTk

New Poem 200,000

 200,000

 Two Hundred Thousand

 How many of these people

 Would still be alive today

 If this wasn’t an election year

 If national plans preserving public health 

 Had been regarded as something 

 Worthwhile instead of violating

 Republican orthodoxy about

 Big Government, State’s Rights,

 And Free, Unfettered Markets

 >

 You probably have relatives 

 Who still believe the Trump Lie

 That his woeful response was better

 Than doing nothing and maybe causing 

 An apocryphal figure of Two Million deaths

 Thanks to their belief in the infallibility 

 Of The Donald,  you’ll probably spend

 Virtual holidays on phone, Zoom or FaceTime 

 Unless you give in and say you don’t know

 Anyone who actually has Coronavirus 

 And you sit closely alongside family

 Passing the Russian roulette pistol around

 Between servings of turkey, stuffing and cranberries 

 Working on raising the casualty numbers to

 Two Hundred Seventy Five Thousand

 Or perhaps an even 300K

Some advice for Labor Day Weekend 2020

New Poem: AMERICA SITS IN THE COVID CORNER

hey Joe what are you doing there
sitting with that passport in your hand
keening and wailing I can’t use it
because the authority figures left the room
and the kids turned over their desks
carved obscenities into the blackboard
pulled the clock down from the wall
smashed it into microscopic metal pieces
screaming school sucks the hell with indoors
then pushed and shoved filling every street
>
the businessmen told the government
let us reopen we’re losing all this money
bellowing in a George C. Scott voice:
Jesus Christ we’ll be ruined
and the government gave in
told the CDC adapt or be ignored
making no commands or demands
just suggestions and punting decisions downwards
>
fear is a deadly disease
even worse than the current virus
so so scared of losing political donor money
even though big business got big loans
small businesses denied, told try try again
in the midst of this no one dared to think
of how to tell the public to mask up sit tight hang on
to see a real reduction in the plague
>
so Joe sits and cries
can’t even go visit Canada this summer
just watches the passing of the shit parade:
bad president battering school districts
amusement park reopening in high plague state
musicians and comedians playing to mask-free crowds
>
hey Joe what are you doing there
feeding your passport into a shredder

New Poem: CAUGHT FLATFOOTED

when the massive death ship drops anchor again
we’ll blame the protesters and no one else
not the Las Vegas and Reno vacationers
not the overflowing pool parties in Ozarks
certainly not the federal and state leaders
and all the National/Local on-air news people
who cranked up their bullet microphones
to holler out:
OPEN UP OPEN UP
WE ARE LOSING MONEY HAND OVER FIST
GO BACK TO SHOPPING MALLS
SEE A MOVIE (PREFERABLY TENET OR MULAN)
IN A THEATER WE HOPE TO EXPAND TO 50 PERCENT
CAPACITY BECAUSE WE CARE MORE ABOUT
PROFIT MARGINS THAN YOUR HEALTH
AND IF IT WEREN’T FOR THOSE DAMN GOVERNORS
WE’D MAKE YOU GO TO CONCERTS TOO!
>
like I said above,
we’ll blame the protesters
and the National/Local news people love Both Sides
so we’ll endure the awful president being given oxygen
and lifted from the canvas before the count ends
in order to pretend much of 2020 never happened
>
so much easier to let death run wild
than learn from our lack of awareness
and our efforts to stay ahead of the flattened curve