[RCL]

A Virus Verse

After John Davies, from “The Triumph of Death”

Hollywood is coughing from a plague
Arising from bad acting by our leaders,
Not here, but where the principals are vague
About protective gear and ventilators.

Now, as bees in smoke abandon hives
Confused, we’re wondering, should we stay here?
Or flee—the single, partners, husbands, wives
And children nearly overwhelmed by fear?

There are constraints, threats of punishment
for roaming, spreading death to many more
While Washington, its credibility spent,
Plays politics, our president a whore…

Davies (1569-1626) was a poet who lived through the plague outbreaks in London in the 1590s.