apocalypse now?

Posted byChaplainmikePosted inPoetry or Lyrics

•

apocalypse now?

we live these days
with swabs up our noses
masks covering our faces
alcohol dripping from hands
that hesitate to shake other hands
we measure our distancing
we balk at embracing
we’re worried about breathing
for god’s sake

and everyone’s an expert
but nobody knows
what the hell is happening
or why or when
whatever we think “normal” is
will someday reappear
all i can say is that
every morning i go outside
and it smells a little bit
like napalm

56 thoughts on “apocalypse now?”

  1. My deepest sympathy to your John, you and all of those who love him.

    There are no words i can offer or any comfort may I give. I will only say those who serve our loved ones whom require this care are a god-send and wonderful human beings. My hope is there is grace and comfort during this period for each of you.

    Like

  2. Thank you for sharing this. I was thinking of the book on the London plague and couldn’t remember the name or author. I a long time worker in public health and environmental science, there is quite a lot a literature and research around this phenomenon throughout history.

    Like

  6. it takes all kinds – wonderful world we live in with great diversity among good people abounding therein 🙂

    Like

  7. the worst thing?

    that people so casually ‘accepted’ the intense suffering of covid 19’s victims as ‘a normal death’ when they might have worn a mask to spare folks of that hell but would not because ‘a mask would rob them of their freedom’ from responsibility for the carnage

    don’t understand this

    was it all to suck up to a tyrant, this act of ‘defiance’ by approving the placing of one another into harm’s way without any sense of personal responsibility for the consequential (and unnecessary) suffering?

    tyrants demand sacrifices, but to sell one’s soul for such a man . . . . ?

    Like

  8. from Auden,

    “Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
    Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
    For nothing now can ever come to any good.”

    Like

  10. yes, Robert F

    your our ‘poet laureate’ and this is a great poem in celebration of the preciousness of all life, that is existed for a while and we were witness to its existence and find in its remains something to honor

    your poem so reminds me of a part of a poem written by the step daughter of a dear friend, this:

    “Let me embrace all broken things–
    unlimbed spiders,
    the curled corpse of a rat,
    drug-addicted mothers,
    my humanly perfect son,
    my aging face–
    with tenderness.
    Let me stop being that thing against which anything, everything, can break.”

    Robert F., you have a gift of poetry and we have been blessed that you shared it with us here

    Like

  12. The August initiation followed the next day by important announcements regarding development of the vaccine gives the impression that the plan to sell was prompted by inside information. Not one, but two sets of events bookending this trade, those in August and those this week, occur in close proximity to each other in a way that seems more than a little sketchy.

    Like

  13. Seneca, you are one of my current heroes, right up there with Greta Thunberg.* Who’d have thunk it?

    * I have other heroes too, but I tried to pick one that might annoy you. 🙂

    Like

  14. It’s a good poem, Mike. What I get from it is frustration expressed in stream-of-conciousness, something like a Bob Dylan talkin’ blues—in that period when he was hanging out with Allen Ginsberg, most likely.

    Like

  15. It was Pfizer’s CEO, with the 5.6 million dollar sale nailing the peak of Monday’s skyrocketing stock price nearly dead-on, after the announcement Monday of the vaccine. They’re saying it’s not insider trading, as the sale was initiated back in August for the November date, pending a target price, which was more than met. Why the announcement on Monday, same date as the sale? Could be innocent.

    But the August initiation date is also suspect, because that was followed next day with other convenient announcements. It’s all a little too cynical for me. I had been thinking about investing a little in Pfizer, but not now, something’s rotten in Denmark.

    https://www.npr.org/2020/11/11/933957580/pfizer-ceo-sold-millions-in-stock-after-coronavirus-vaccine-news-raising-questio

    Like

  17. When I was in the initial stage of inquiry for the protocol, I asked if the shot contained the virus; not wanting to pass it on. My nurse manager said it does NOT contain the virus but it contains “instructions.”

    I have no idea how all this works

    They will continue to test my blood for the next 20 months or so.

    Like

  20. After the first shot I thought I had gotten the placebo; might have felt a little off the next day but I’m in my 70s. But the booster, I expected nothing but certainly ended up with some symptoms.

    One of these days I’ll get an antibodies test but it’s not free. Pfizer tests me but they are NOT going to every tell me.

    Like

  21. Yes, thanks Seneca. I’m inclined to trust this Pfizer vaccine, since the U.S government had so little to do with it. A little disturbed that one of Pfizer’s executive officers made a killing on the vaccine in the stock market in a way that might have involved a sophisticated form of insider trading, but I don’t suppose that would effect the quality of the vaccine itself.

    Like

  28. Oh, I’m not sure I’d believe that narrative. The world was coming out of WWI, there was a lot of ugly death everyone had experienced world-wide, there had to be a feeling of “the worst is over,” then… WHAM! “Nope, you all get more death.”

    It makes me think brutal reality of “more death” left a deep scar on everyone. Probably more of a global PTSD post-pandemic than “shame” at the response.

    Like

  35. Last week, being a Pfizer guinea pig, I had my second and last shot. I had a 30 hr reaction; aching, fatigued, not very hungry and then, VOILA, I was 100 percent okay. Then we hear this week that Pfizer’s vaccine is thought to be about 90 percent effective. Well praise God for that.

    We are reminded of God’s common grace for all of mankind, such as modern medicine [ which is far from perfect of course but does save lives.]

    As of this week, I certainly feel like the Covid Sword of Damocles is no longer hanging on a thin thread over my head.
    I’m thinking about getting back on a plane and going to see friends/family.

    Like

  37. Because triumphant health in the general rout of constitutions is a kind of power in itself. He originated nothing, he could keep the routine going—that’s all. But he was great. He was great by this little thing that it was impossible to tell what could control such a man. He never gave that secret away. Perhaps there was nothing within him. Such a suspicion made one pause—for out there there were no external checks. Once when various tropical diseases had laid low almost every ‘agent’ in the station, he was heard to say, ‘Men who come out here should have no entrails.’

    My money is on the second.

    Like

  41. We have been here before
    We might be here again
    So, lets roll that boulder up the mountain,
    Lest we sink deeper.

    Like

  42. I’ve heard the same thing. I expect that to happen with coronavirus, especially given that many in our society and world already seem to have started doing this by contending that it’s really not as bad as experts are saying it is.

    Like

  44. Of course, “apocalypse” actually means “unveiling.” So maybe it’s worth asking what this apocalypse is revealing to us about ourselves.

    What does it say about us that the people asking to bear the brunt of both the risk and the emotional burden of the pandemic are poorly paid and often disrespected?

    What does it say about us that so many people have given in to hopelessness, no longer even trying to protect themselves, their families, or the vulnerable people in their communities?

    What does it say about us that we, as a society, can’t act like adults for long enough for our kids to have a shot at a somewhat normal childhood?

    What does it say about us that we talk about the elderly as if they’re disposable, if that’s what it takes to juice the economy?

    The pandemic isn’t going to last forever, and when it ends we’re going to have a choice between taking a long, hard look in the mirror and repenting, or going back to business as usual to try to fill our lives with noise again so we don’t have to hear the voice of our consciences.

    Like

  49. Approaching portentous. Know it or not, we are journeying up river. And our so-called leaders are out to kill what they consider a rogue superior.

    Like

  50. On Friday my John will be examined for further palliative care

    I am empty. No mask can hide my tears.
    Susan

    Like

  52. “nobody knows what the hell is happening” is actually true all the time, it’s just that now it is excruciatingly, torturously apparent that that is in fact the state of affairs.

    Like

Leave a comment