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There’s another pandemic,
Which started a long time ago
It can be traced to 1852.
“Put on a mask and shut up,
In court, indoors, you should not speak,”
said the judge in People v. Hall.
A cold face indicates one is infected.
I take off my mask from time to time
So they see that I can smile.
The vulnerable may be good
with numbers, but they are dull.
I tell jokes to show
One can get it by being stared at.
I keep my head down, not wanting
to be offered directions:
“Back to China!”
When a vaccine was developed
I went to the doctor’s
And waited patiently in line --
A line so long, stretching from the Heartland
to San Francisco Bay
A nurse asked for my insurance card
“What is the purpose of the visit?”
And then: “Where do you
really come from?”
A moment later, she returned.
“Sorry, you are not in the high-risk group.
Too many of you, overrepresented!
Give it another decade or two,
The vaccine will be over the counter.”
Slowly I walk back home
Along the railway track.
Emotions run on steam
I try to whistle to diffuse them.
Oddly,
it sounds like Vivaldi.
