Poems About a Pandemic by Top Critiquers

Statistics said she didn’t stand a chance
Now I wonder more about why she’s gone
The words she wrote had something else to tell
While on lock down when we were on all indoors
Like a foreboding to reflect on life
As everyone else had to stay apart

And then as we all tried to stay apart
We didn’t know who amongst us stood a chance
While many were very careless with life
The plague swept away and then they were gone
As she wrote about being stuck indoors
Suffering with something she wouldn’t tell

But then again...

Noon-stone shrapnel
Bang / slung at lungs
Firedamp breath s(t)inks
As an anaemic sunset doused

There is no coal in mine s(tr)eams here
(Only another year)

Ring-a-ring-a belladonna
Nurse pockets full o’ poison
(Only another hospital)

Snow on fingertips from my first winter trace
Honeycomb whorls on summer’s last hive -
The man who sells rain plucks
Broken ribs of the skies

If such deaths appear to be small
Tall
Stands the conscripted remembrance
//
Upon slumber
Armies alert to...

Sometimes it feels like
I can't get a break
I've been sick for months now
random viruses, cold, flu
anxiety depression
funnily enough no covid
I worry about my health
mentally
physically
spiritually

My dad's had covid twice now
he's in hospital with a cough
that won't go away
and needs oxygen to breathe
they say he might have lung cancer
but can't run tests
until he's covid negative

We're not good with "I love you's"
so I text him
asking if he's doing okay
and that I hope...

The world is contagious
Don't touch your face
Go wash your hands
Lock the infected in cages

Viral soldiers take no prisoners
Spread their disease
To the unsuspecting
Frontline worker

The night is the darkest
Just before sunrise
Hold your breath
And pray for light