Strange new ailment
Giving pneumonia-like symptoms
Has a ripple effect
Spanning our globe.
Floating on the wind, harm to health,
Diaspora of microbes--
Point of outbreak:
Wuhan, China.
Within a month, fate’s transmission,
Country by country. Bad news travels fast.
Reported cases of Coronavirus
Breeds a second disease.
One much older, equally contagious,
Easier to spot the signs.
Point of outbreak:
The human mind.
Modes of transmission:
Mainstream media,
Person-to-person contact.
Symptoms include:
Stereotyping,
Side glances,
Spiteful feelings
Disguised as jokes,
Bullying,
Swearing,
Unprovoked assaults,
Avoiding restaurants,
Insulting
Internet memes,
Misinformation,
Discrimination,
Lumping together
Japanese, Korean,
Vietnamese, Laotian
And Thai
Under the heading of
“Chinese”,
International
Travel bans,
Tendency to run from,
Duck and dodge
Straight black
Hair, almond-shaped eyes, yellow skin,
Mistaken
Notion of
“Chinese =
Virus carrier”
And sudden memory loss
Of the simple fact that
Asian lives
Matter, too.
Author Bio:
Dee Allen is an African-Italian performance poet based in Oakland, California. Active on the creative writing & Spoken Word tips since the early 1990s. Author of 5 books ["Boneyard", "Unwritten Law", "Stormwater" and "Skeletal Black", all from POOR Press, and coming soon from Conviction 2 Change Publishing, "Elohi Unitsi"] and 24 anthology appearances [ including "Your Golden Sun Still Shines", "Rise", "Extreme", "The Land Lives Forever" and "Civil Liberties United", edited by Shizue Seigel] under his figurative belt so far.
Giving pneumonia-like symptoms
Has a ripple effect
Spanning our globe.
Floating on the wind, harm to health,
Diaspora of microbes--
Point of outbreak:
Wuhan, China.
Within a month, fate’s transmission,
Country by country. Bad news travels fast.
Reported cases of Coronavirus
Breeds a second disease.
One much older, equally contagious,
Easier to spot the signs.
Point of outbreak:
The human mind.
Modes of transmission:
Mainstream media,
Person-to-person contact.
Symptoms include:
Stereotyping,
Side glances,
Spiteful feelings
Disguised as jokes,
Bullying,
Swearing,
Unprovoked assaults,
Avoiding restaurants,
Insulting
Internet memes,
Misinformation,
Discrimination,
Lumping together
Japanese, Korean,
Vietnamese, Laotian
And Thai
Under the heading of
“Chinese”,
International
Travel bans,
Tendency to run from,
Duck and dodge
Straight black
Hair, almond-shaped eyes, yellow skin,
Mistaken
Notion of
“Chinese =
Virus carrier”
And sudden memory loss
Of the simple fact that
Asian lives
Matter, too.
Author Bio:
Dee Allen is an African-Italian performance poet based in Oakland, California. Active on the creative writing & Spoken Word tips since the early 1990s. Author of 5 books ["Boneyard", "Unwritten Law", "Stormwater" and "Skeletal Black", all from POOR Press, and coming soon from Conviction 2 Change Publishing, "Elohi Unitsi"] and 24 anthology appearances [ including "Your Golden Sun Still Shines", "Rise", "Extreme", "The Land Lives Forever" and "Civil Liberties United", edited by Shizue Seigel] under his figurative belt so far.
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