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.