by Ernie McCray
This COVID-19 thing
is so far beyond
anything I’ve ever seen,
disease-wise,
and I’ve
been around a
health scare or two,
born to a mother
who, because she
had lost a lung to TB,
raised me
to practically seek cover
when someone coughs
or happens to sneeze,
to not, for goodness sake,
ever eat off somebody’s plate
or take a sip of their soda or shake…
Then, suddenly, my focus
on tuberculosis,
was crippled, pun intended,
by polio,
as I was being told,
if I wanted to grow old,
I’d better stay away from
the swimming hole
and forget about
drinking from the water fountain
or going to the movie show
or the rodeo –
and stay away from crowds,
for crying out loud…
Then, with cures and vaccinations,
for, seemingly,
every kind of bug there is,
we lived for years
with very few wide-spread fears
about epidemics and pandemics,
and such,
especially if it was an infirmity
that didn’t, generally,
concern us
as AIDS was a “gay disease.”
Ebola? That’s a problem overseas.
Then along comes COVID-19
and the whole wide world is
totally ill-at-ease,
wearing masks,
abandoning tasks,
on its knees in prayer,
washing its hands religiously,
wondering if a runny nose
or a breathless feeling
is due to an allergy
or COVID-19;
if that yearly sore throat
this time
is a sign
of COVID-19;
if a cough
is because
a piece of pizza
went down the wrong pipe
or because
of COVID-19.
And, yet, in the panic,
in the hoarding of goods
and buying guns
and selling needed items
at prices that stun notions
of empathy and sympathy,
in the incompetency
of those in high places
charged with dealing with
such a catastrophe –
in all of that I see beauty
as nothing looks as wonderful
as a world of people
learning to look out
for each other,
trying to figure out
where and how
we can work and play,
where we can go
and where we can stay,
so many going about in
life affirming ways:
“senior hours” at stores;
children writing cards
for people in nursery facilities;
Italians making music
together from their balconies;
hungry kids
being fed in their communities;
Girl Scouts
donating cookies
to medical workers and food pantries;
young folks taking flowers
and groceries
to aging friends
and those who are unknown to them,
checking on how they’re coping;
neighbors greeting each other,
from safe distances,
with friendly smiles
and open hearts
as they meet,
walking their streets;
people listening to their collective cries and needs
paving the way for new ways to be.
New ways to be.
I stand in awe
of the reality
that a virus could be the energizer
for the social change
the world so desperately needs,
that it could
help us create better
lives for all of humanity,
the whole human race.
The very thought of it
puts a smile on my old face.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Ernie
Great thoughts. Thank you.
My Mother suffered through incessant RAF and Polish cracker jack pilots dropping hellfire on Le Havre France during WWII. The krauts finally capitulated as POW’s and begged American soldiers to not be released to the advancing Polish troops. They were rightfully slaughtered as my Mother was hospitalized with tuberculosis. My Father arrived and saved her. They were married in a bombed church. We shall survive.
Thank you Ernie, Your words are always so inspiring and comforting.
Colleen
An excellent poem/commentary, Ernie! Thank you. If humanity can survive this difficult crisis (and I think we will), we can become a much more empathetic, cooperative species. I’m looking forward to living long enough to see it.
Thanks Ernie. We need more of what you got!