Dear George,
I don’t intend to make this a coronavirus blog, but it’s all that’s on my mind these days. Mostly I’ve been working on a series of shadormas about the pandemic. A shadorma is allegedly a medieval Spanish poetic form that consists of 6 lines with 3/5/3/3/7/5 syllables per line. One shadorma can be a short poem, or you can string a series together as I’ve done here. I say allegedly Spanish because “shadorma” is not a Spanish word, and no one has ever discovered a Spanish poem from the Middle Ages that was written in this form. One skeptic speculates that shadormas were invented in recent years by a postal clerk who had too much time on his or her hands. Anyway, they are enjoyable to work on. Usually I prefer to write light, airy poems, but the dark side prevailed this time. It is what it is. I wonder if this is how others feel.
Love,
Dave
Shadormas For Our Times
Nasty beast
This COVID-19
Satan’s spawn
Spread by wind
Racing through the populace
Hunting you and me
Wuhan first
And then Seattle
World on fire
Lethal scourge
A lucky few will escape
A roll of the dice
Job losses
Businesses kaput
Store meltdowns
Bankruptcy
Recovery takes ten years
Most will not survive
Stick to rules
We’ll flatten the curve
Hospitals
In distress
Doctors, nurses lacking gear
Medical war zones
The elders
Nursing home patrons
Prisoners
Hispanics
African-Americans
COVID’s after them
Stay at home
The world is closed down
Malls shuttered
No pro sports
Large gatherings illegal
Cities are ghost towns
Keep apart
Six feet, maybe twelve
Handshakes out
No more hugs
In this disconnected age
Friends cannot be friends
Don our masks
Cover up the smiles
Faces veiled
Muffled breath
Neighbors look like terrorists
I avert my eyes
Will we die?
Maybe, we’ll know soon
Eighty-two
Weakened lungs
A profile the virus craves
Hide in the bedroom
At the store
Peril from all sides
Crowded aisles
Few wear masks
Surfaces are festering
Illness resting there
Flawed leaders
Failure at the top
Denial
Nonstop lies
No regard for human life
Politics, that’s it
Drink Chlorox
Bleach will kill the germs
Shrinks them up
Roasts their skin
Covid Nineteen turns to ash
Sadly so will you
This lockdown
My spouse won’t have it
Rambunctious
Unrestrained
Off she goes to Fresh Market
Picking out new germs
Years to go
For this pandemic
Dastardly
Worse than SARS
Worst of all for folks like us
Will our lives come back?
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