By John C. Krieg
PROMPT—During Covid-19 ...
This Thing is Getting Serious
In all seriousness, I know this is a
legitimate National Emergency
And I must do what I can to protect
my family, and myself from it
But there are some things that smack of panic
Hoarding, runs on toilet paper, and sanitizer(s)
And some things that smack of despicable greed
Price gouging, and offering fake testing products
This is like The Book of Revelation
In real time, and in Technicolor
Great good, and great evil are on high display
I’m praying that good will triumph in the end
But Coronavirus has nothing on retirement
For nobody knows where I am
Or what I have been doing
Or if I’m dead or alive
A six-foot safety radius?
Try the circumference of the globe
Social distancing?
Try 5 acres removed from my closest neighbor
Containment zones
Mine starts at my property line
Chillout? I’m like a block of ice
Get a grip? I’ve never lost it
We’re always stocked up on food, anyway
Have e-mail, and satellite T.V.
Bank and pay bills over the internet
Have well water, and 500 gallons of propane
So as long as the electricity stays on
Our lives go on as usual
We are the lucky ones, I know, and I
Feel remorse for my less fortunate brethren
And my grandchildren living at home
With the school closed, they are
going to go bonkers with boredom, and
Demand attention keeping me from my writing
Circle the wagons
Us versus them
Pray that some Americans
don’t turn on other Americans
“We are all in this together,” is the
current rallying cry, but I wonder why
It took this pandemic for the nation
to actually believe it
CFS: Caronavirus Fatigue Syndrome
It’s coming, if it isn’t here already
People will let down their guard
Paying for that with their lives
I’m paying for my retirement with my life
My golden years are taking years off my life
I blame myself first, and the system second
The truth being that when you retire – you’re forgotten
In retirement, many are under
Self-inflicted house arrest
Spending as little as possible
And never going anywhere
So retirees are at least a leg up
On the rest of the country
In knowing how to deal with
Isolation and loneliness
Coronavirus has nothing on retirement
Except the speed at which suffers will die
A sad truth, for death is death, but now
We may not get to choose our time
A Few Days Later
It’s Saint Patrick’s Day!
And nobody’s throwing a party
It’s raining again in Southern Cali
So I watch the news that’s saying:
Coronavirus! Coronavirus!! Coronavirus!!!
Coronavirus! Coronavirus!! Coronavirus!!!
Coronavirus! Coronavirus!! Coronavirus!!!
Coronavirus! Coronavirus!! Coronavirus!!!
Say; have you heard about the Coronavirus?
This thing is like the grayscale
On Game of Thrones
Where’s John Brady when you need him?
To research our salvation in a dusty old tomb
And even the Mad King
Seems to finally get it
He can’t laugh and lie
His way out of this one
He’s no longer mocking all of us with:
The sky is falling! The sky is falling!! The sky is falling!!!
The sky is falling! The sky is falling!! The sky is falling!!!
The sky is falling! The sky is falling!! The sky is falling!!!
The sky is falling! The sky is falling!! The sky is falling!!!
Hey Mr. President: The sky is falling!
Dr. Edward O. Wilson tried to warn us humans
That as the apex species, we weren’t so special, because
All those little creepy crawleys at the bottom of the pyramid
Were looking up at us, and plotting our demise
And Now a Constructive Suggestion
Build the necessary facilities to house
the poor, the sick, the huddled masses
Wasn’t that the point of the Statue of Liberty?
After the plague, use them to house the CCC
Bring back the CCC!
Hasn’t this thing taught us the need for preparation?
Let the youth have an alternative to national service
That doesn’t require toting a gun or killing someone
With a standing peaceful army on our own soil
We won’t get caught with our pants down again
Those creepy crawleys aren’t going to give up, and the
New normal is to assume that pandemics are normal
Examining the Arc of a Lifetime
This thing is like a giant meteor
Heading straight at geezers
With preexisting conditions that most
Gave to themselves
Those with Type II diabetes (me)
And COPD (she)
We have never seen anything like this in our lifetimes
Or we would have paid closer attention to our health
That’s the worst of retirement
You have the time to ponder
The things you should have done
Not that it makes a bit of difference now
Coronavirus has nothing on retirement
Except the speed at which suffers will die
A sad truth, for death is death, but now
We may not get to choose our time
John C. Krieg is a retired landscape architect and land planner who formerly practiced in Arizona, California, and Nevada. He is also retired as an International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) certified arborist and currently holds seven active categories of California state contracting licenses, including the highest category of Class A General Engineering. He has written a college textbook entitled Desert Landscape Architecture (1999, CRC Press).