You can tell COVID’s reign
of terror seems ended because mass
shootings are back in the news.
And Israelis are bombing buildings
after rockets rained down
like shrapneled confetti again
over their crowded towns and cities.
And people seem right back
where they left off before a virus
forced all indoors against our will.
For the first time ever earth stood still
as people more or less agreed
to self-isolate, so much so
that dolphins swam up the canals of Venice
and were seen near Dhaka, too —
wondering perhaps where all the noise
and pollution had floated off to.
Well, curious dolphins, we turned
inwards but not to reflect. Or to heal.
NO… apparently we needed to feel
that our collective air was clear
so we could rain down rockets again,
launch airstrikes again, shoot up clubs
again and vent our own breed of illness
on the world replacing one plague
with another. As for temperance,
that was only ever a pipe-dream
or Sunday school sermon
COVID couldn’t teach. And perhaps,
it never could.
