LORD OF THE FLIES
“Coronavirus Conference Gets Canceled Because of Coronavirus.”
—Bloomberg News, March 10, 2020
I can already see the streets
filling with corpses piled
tenderly along the curbs.
First the homeless, then
the poor, then those who
were lost, depressed, lonely,
alone. The rich will be last,
top of the pile as they were
in life. Dressed in their finery.
Oh the ball gown shrouds.
The worthless pearls.
—from Poets Respond
March 17, 2020
__________
Dorianne Laux: “My husband and I are living in a sublet in Raleigh while we teach this semester. It’s in the tallest building downtown and we’re on the 24th floor. As I scanned the streets below I began to imagine what they would look like after the city had shut down from the pandemic. As time passed without services, I thought where would the dead go? And as we fight for democracy in this country my second thought was that death is the greatest democracy.” (web)
