Menacing Times: Poem #7

POEM #7

INTRODUCTION

Surprisingly, I am past the paralyzing fear. Now redirecting the anger. I am not so overwhelmed to the point of helplessness. My mind is calm, though the heart aches in mourning for those who have suffered and are suffering in this COVID-19 pandemic. My muse caresses my thoughts as it urges me to speak about these menacing times we face today. This poem is courtesy of my muse, an unexpected guest since February, a muse that has definitely  overstayed one's welcome.

My Masked Self at Breakfast When Someone Coughed. ©James Sobredo

MENACING TIMES

These are not ordinary times.

The clock points somewhere at the edge of calm

Tiptoeing on a tightrope approaching

The brink of a hazardous curve

In a terrain unfamiliar, a mindless slip

Could mean the end.

How does one travel

Through a time in history to glean

A few lessons in confronting

An enemy with no face

Except under a microscope

Recognizable only to a trained few?

The enemy might not know it is the enemy.

But the enemy has a name, shamelessly posing

As if an undercover or a spy like 007.

But real, unlike the fictional James Bond.

It is the present-day public enemy Number One.

It has infiltrated nooks and

Crannies of the globe from Asia, Africa,

Across Europe, the Americas

And elsewhere, indifferent

To consequent harms it inflicts

On its path. It burdens, wrecks despair

And leaves no safe haven to hide

Or protect the self and those we love.

I’ll take the fictional 007 any time, any day.

This COVID-19, by the way that’s

The not-so-secret agent’s name, has claimed

Many in its wake, mutating not

Unlike a shape shifter.

But this mutating agent is a ghost,

And unlike SARS, its predecessor,

It has now infected more and

Re-infected; and cunningly made fools

Of pretentious heads of states who are science-averse

Or those who pretend to lead us

In battles against an invisible, but potently

Diabolical enemy that threatens all.

Don’t be misled by the calm.

The aura of menace is around the corner

Growing in leaps and bounds

By the hour, by the day, by each

Report of how many more countries

Have fallen hostage, paralyzed

In the enemy’s grip.

In its wake, how does one find the balance

Between erring on the side of caution

and paralyzing fear?

How does one keep from feeling threatened?

This ominous invader disrupts the ordinary,

Silences once-bustling cities, imprisons

The unsuspecting and victimizes

The most vulnerable if vigilance fails.

The threat so real that the Vatican
Handcuffed, cancels Holy Week and Easter's public events.

Are we living the ultimate fate of Lent?

The unintended sacrifice the guardians

Of the universe callously chose

Not to see coming. Never mind, that all the evidence

Of inhumanity, injustice, indignities scream

At our faces. Yet those in positions of influence turn

The other cheek, stay ignorant insulated

In its pathetic self, hiding

Behind titles and self-aggrandizing

Accolades and false narratives.

Must ultimate sacrifices continue to mount

In numbers to appease invaders,

Appease cults' imposter gods?

Before all of humanity permanently fall asleep.

When news of suffering in far-away lands

In the hands of the invisible invaders

Reach us. I hope we pray

And not respond any other way,

Like in Act 1, Scene 1 of

Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar

When Marullus addressed

The Commoners whom he called

The hard hearts of Rome:

“And do you now cull out a holiday?
And do you now strew flowers in his way
That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood?”

I should think not. Instead we must do

All we can to keep our distance, wash

Our hands, cover our faces and

“Begone!

Run to your houses, fall upon your knees and

Pray to the gods to intermit the plague

That needs must light on this ingratitude.”

Because today, it is not Pompey’s blood.

It might be ours, all of ours. 

Elizabethan Era thespians are not staging this play

Insecure nations are not flexing muscles in war games.

This is not the seasonal cold. And for all of our safety's sake,

Please, do not call it the flu. It is far different.

This virulent virus is at our doorsteps. 

It is real. This COVID-19.

The menace of our time.

Be very conscientious of habits. Be vigilant.

The virus has gone global. Markets tumbling, that’s

More global than we care to accept.

We quarantine people. But we cannot

So easily manipulate, isolate

Economies or viruses.

So, stop sleepwalking, deluding ourselves

Or be deluded by propaganda.

Whether we like it or not, we are interconnected,

Our lifelines intertwined.

We are our sisters’ keeper; our brothers’ keeper.

The unintended consequences have begun

A chain reaction that could care less

About what gods we worship,

Or if we worship at all,

Or what skin wraps our soul.

The menace exists. Each one of us potentially

At risk. Some more than others.

Each and every human being

Must take responsibility now

For humanity’s sake.

These are not ordinary times.

We are somewhere at the edge of calm

Tiptoeing on a tightrope approaching

The brink of a hazardous curve

In a terrain unfamiliar,

And a mindless slip could mean

The end.

So be mindful. Be vigilant.

Whether we think it or not,

It is past the time,

Time to wake up!

Poem ©Lu Sobredo
Photo ©James Sobredo
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

About the Author 
Lu Sobredo is writer/publisher at Lu Travels Abroad, a blog dedicated to folks whose limitations do not hamper them from traveling. A year into early retirement her world collapsed from the diagnosis of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). Her total life changed, but she did not let RA define her. With love from family, friends and an awesome doctor, she regained some functionality--her new normal. She will have RA all her life. And she now writes about life and travel with RA. During the pandemic of 2020, she stays put and writes poetry and a first novel, a travel of sorts but in the heart and mind.