Simply Noting

 

Is it social alchemy or might it quite

possibly be social anarchy, the situation

that otherwise obedient populations find

themselves in being ordered to self isolate

social distance, remain secluded in their

homes. Sleep at home, eat at home, work

from home, socialize from home, shop

from home. In short become a recluse in

a desperate bid to avoid becoming a corpse.

Or at the very best, inconvenienced by

illness, even made extremely ill by a nasty

virus that has bioscientists and epidemiologists

confused and uncertain themselves. Who to

trust? Evidently not WHO. Whom otherwise

to look to for direction? Depends, since a

frightened public is wary of all advice given

that those decision-makers are themselves

left to gamble on suppositions while others

predicate their orders on directly opposite

theories. One thing, however, seems clear.

Under normal conditions the streets that 

without fail are clear of walkers and the roads

that normally are thronged with vehicles

have undergone a reversal. Now, streets are

full of people pushing strollers, teens walking

starry-eyed together, children playing games

riding bicycles, runners, families strolling in

the fresh air, while the roads are absent cars.

 

 

One World

 

How strange is humanity. At this time of

universal fear of the global pandemic

laying medical science and populations

low in a panic of survival a new mantra

has arisen 'we are all in this together' in a

world where we have never as a race of

animals of high cerebral function been

together in any sense of the sentiment.

Where great masses of people clinging to

basic survival in endemic privation ruled

by vicious despots for whom power over the

paltry lives of millions uncaring whether

they live or die of disease and malnutrition

embrace a fundamentalist religion invariably

instructing them that life in the hereafter is

guaranteed to those of firm faith, a faith

to heed sacred scriptures debasing that of

others, condemning them to death. Places

where civil infrastructure is as absent as

justice and human rights but poverty enduring.

Ragingly offended by the presence of others

on the globe who live in plenty, demanding

their 'share' of global wealth. A pause in 

violent attacks against such enemies while

agitating for humanitarian aid during the crisis

and typically when normal life resumes so too

will the acts of rightful faith in rabid terrorism.

 

 

WHO, What Where When, How

 

A query not by necessity in that order, class

but you are well advised to pay attention.

The what remains uncertain beyond it being

a zoonotic leaping from animal to human.

Where it emerged is well known but one is

not to place blame on its point of origin lest

one give offence to a powerful political regime.

When it emerged alerting medical professionals

to the presence of a new, raging threat to global

health prompting them to inform their peers

their voices were stilled under threat. And

because we live in an interconnected world

of globalism where social movement and trade

tourism and business intersect to profit the

world economy, transmission of a little-understood

and often deadly pathogen was achieved. Into the

fray stepped the prestigious world body dedicated

to global health declaring the newly-revealed

threat non-communicable from human-to-human

and no reason to commit a racist act by closing

international borders to China. Now the global

community reels under a contagion refusing

control, asserting and reasserting itself. All

things considered whether the SARS-CoV-19

novel coronavirus emerged from a highly

secret experimental biological-threat laboratory

in Wuhan or from a notorious wet market can

be assumed to be irrelevant as the world implodes.

 

 

It's a Dog's Life

 

 

A cursory glance identifies them as twins

and they definitely are look-alikes though

brother and sister, litter-mates of a litter

of two though large for their breed and

it's a mystery how a toy sire and dam

mated to produce our little treasures. We

know them as others do not and though

they may be 'cute' they bedevil us by

their unerring propensity to frustrate

though there is no lack of intelligence

to offset the wilfulness. As male and

female they exemplify the very real

variances in the sexes, both physically

socially and gender-behavioured. She is

most decidedly feminine, serene and

confident, assertive and cunning. She is

also designed by nature shorter, plumper

far less sleek than her brother who is taller

muscular and given to displaying male

tendencies of aggression. Between them

she is the leader, he the follower. She will

eat anything, he will spurn what fails to

impress though his appetite is restored

when confronted with sticks and aged dog

leavings. All well and good but what now

I find disturbing is that I discover a direct

parallel between their temperaments as

gender-varied as they are, and those of the

two who care for them, he and I, both like

them having lived together for a dog's age

each of us taking on the appearance of the

other as though the litters that introduced us

to the world were little different than theirs.

 

 

The Silence of Snow

 

Wind spurts fierce thrusts compelling
the snow to drift languidly and
mound into voluptuous landscapes
while evergreen boughs heavy
with snow release great clumps
themselves springing to height.

Lazy clouds of snow drizzle
the landscape. Falling clumps freckling
the grey sky, shifting clouds to
pleasure the insistent sun. Shafts
of light haze through the forest,
firing the snow to silver crystals.

Through the soft and gentle
stillness, the staccato of a hairy,
red-capped woodpecker. Snow
generously comforts a recently-bereaved
copse of elm, maple and poplar,
naked no longer. Trunks grey,
black and brown stippled
gloriously-blinding white.

Desiccated, bright orange bittersweet
fruit cluster along their vines'
chokehold on prickly Hawthorns.
Their haws shy against the
flamboyance of the others.
The creek drifts clear and tinkling
over gathered fall detritus
now heavily banked in snow.

A raven crosses the undecided sky,
its raucous call shredding the silence
swift body a black arrow true to its mark.
Soon, snow-muted silence regains
its imperious reign.

 

 

 

Three Strikes

 

Come now, gather 'round as we count the

ways: homeless, drug-addicted and now

vulnerable to the dread coronavirus. Your

luck in life appears to have run fairly thin.

On the good news side there are many fine

people dedicated to seeing that you get on

with life. Not life as most know it of course

but your life, the life you have somehow or

other managed to choose out of a vast

multitude of directions of which you chose

this one. Not that it has been satisfying for

you to daily face the elements that housing

would solve, nor that the occasional high

might compensate for the drearily miserable

lows nor the opportunity never directly

sought to overdose. Much less that the frail

state of your health identifies you to the virus

as a credible destination. And then of course

there's the boredom factor. Look, I'm not sitting

comfortably here in judgement of you and

the misery life has handed you. Was it a bad

crowd you enjoyed that your mother warned

you against? That enemy of youth, peer pressure?

Disappointment with the trajectory of your

life when you expected much, much more?

Well, here you are, there are few crossroads

you might choose from since you've already

completed all the choices that have led to this.

Truly, honestly with feeling, I wish you well.

 

 

Deus Misereatur

 

Unwilling to accept responsibility

for his own actions, man's first

collective decision was to create

the Creator. In that Supreme Being

would rest the authority to

affect us all, that Spirit would

move us to behave as we do. We

gratefully give ourselves up to

His protection, His mercy; ourselves

giving no quarter, showing no mercy

to those who deny His existence.

Time has changed our perceptions

for once a whole pantheon of gods

rose to our needs, gave way to an

Aton, finally a Jehovah, heir of El.

Man is adaptable, and with his

changing imperatives he recognizes

the need to alter allegiance to

a new supremacy. In this era the

computer is the latest manifestation

of Divine Presence and the seat of

bureaucracy its temples.

Number after number is sacrificed to

appease the god whose fodder we are.

Recognizing safety in anonymity, we

embrace the liturgy of ciphers

and comforted, we exist blindly,

in a  uniform dance of submission.