Global Pandemic - Karen Wang
Can we stop talking about this global pandemic?
Isn't a bit unnecessary? Pan means all,
so a pandemic occurs all over the world;
isn’t global pandemic an unnecessary
redundancy? Can we stop talking about
morbid illnesses like we are unexpectedly
surprised when diseases make people sick?
I am tired of hearing about the fatally dead,
not their names but the daily tally count —
please, turn off the news updates, fill me with
something more than hopeless despair.
No, tell me about the local pandemics.
Tell me about the times you got sick with
your world: tell me when the malaise started,
how it spread through a nervous system
and turned all your friends into enemies.
Tell me about the ways you self-isolate
or the last time you loved from a distance.
Tell me what keeps you apart from
the place you grew up calling home.
Tell me about lonely connections and surprising
expectations and every forgotten memory.
Tell me about the things you dream
when you are awake; all I want
are your impossible truths.
Come, our days are indefinite
for now, let us make lasting moments
in this tiny universe, you and I
a pair of intimate strangers.