Ring around the rosie
     A pocket full of posies
     Husha husha
     We all fall down!

     - popular children’s rhyme
     (of which there are numerous variants)
     arguably risen out of the Black Death (bubonic plague) of the 1300s


for the anti-alarmists in the audience
we’ll be gentle and kind as possible...

some will live
some will die
those left over
to rebuild the world
as it once stood
minus millions...billions?

1918’s outgunned World War I
in its ferocity
the only mercy
in the swiftness of the process
48hrs
as for the gory details
to quote a popular 21st century expression
“let’s not go there”

hospitals are already overcrowded
doctors and nurses
most at risk in becoming infected

as we look to the skies
for the alien
when he’s already here among us
thriving mutating into new perfections
Evolution as it's meant to be

for quickly as the storm comes
so too does it subside
a new super-virus ascends
only to tumble victim
of its own weaknesses
humanity survives
to swing from the trees yet again
the whole while watching waiting
seeing the parallel
between itself and the viruses to come

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© 2005
Revised © 2020

720 hits as of April 2024

04/27/2020

Author's Note: Inspired by the SARS outbreak (2002-2004), an early/first attempt at capturing the basic/common factors of viruses and their influence on the Human Race.

Posted on 04/27/2020
Copyright © 2024 Chris Sorrenti