If you are alive during a pandemic
Definitely follow the news
You need to know what’s going on
But my suggestion is this:
Only listen to the news
while you are doing something about it
Like going for a walk
Or making a meal
Washing the car
Fixing the house
Planting a garden
pulling weeds
The latter is especially useful
Rife with metaphors and such
And once you’ve removed
All the parasites in sight
Do yourself a favor
And find you some vines
Some public space
Ignored by everyone
Year after year
Thus allowing
a viral outbreak
In slow motion
An otherwise innocuous growth
Overtaking the environment
Insidious invaders, inexorable
Spreading over the highest reaches
pathogenic canopy cutting off light
Choking out life
Cut them off at the ground
And start pulling
A hard jerking motion
Is especially effective
At tearing tiny tendrils
From the upper branches of trees
What you will see
Is that there were more vines than trees
That the light is streaming through
That your chin is now up
your face feeling the sun,
smiling
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