We Don't Talk About the Pandemic Anymore

By Chuck Rybak

PROMPT—During Covid-19 ...

A Poem Excluding All the Letters in "Coronavirus"

they ebbed we helped them

we fed the belly beef be well they ebbed

the MD meted the med medley ml mg

yet the temp fell the temp flexed

betty wet wheezed phlegm

whelmed teddy the helpmeet

he fled legged the temple

they belled we heeded them felt keyed

they begged we held them felt meek

bed empty

they beheld yhwh

eyed the Lethe

we let them

---

Chuck Rybak is a Professor of English, Writing, and Humanities at the University of Wisconsin—Green Bay, where he coordinates their prison education initiative. He is the author of two chapbooks and two full-length collections of poetry. Chuck also writes on Substack as The Declining Academic. Chuck writes from Green Bay, Wisconsin.