Plague Poems @PlaguePoems Twitter profile | Pikagi

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Plague Poems

@PlaguePoems

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A record of the plague years. Z”L. (Also on: Mastodon: plaguepoems; Instagram: plague_poems; Threads: plague_poems; Bsky: plaguepoems)

In quarantine

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Joined March 2020

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@PlaguePoems

Plague Poems

6 days

Periodically we are told that we must not forget all of those who are suffering who are suffering in silence, but when those who are suffering raise their voices and refuse to be forgotten they are told to be silent. * The 236th week of plague poems…

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Plague Poems – The Two-Hundred-and-Thirty-Sixth Week

It is said that “scientists fear Covid may be responsible for a coming wave of dementia,” but look around you please, just look around you, and you will see plenty of evidence that we a…

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@PlaguePoems

Plague Poems

3 years

You have not survived the plague. You are surviving the plague. And your survival depends on understanding that distinction.

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3 years

So the emails you meant to write remain unsent So your report that is due is not finished So the dishes remain piled high in your overflowing sink So your to do list remains mostly undone You have survived another week of the plague And though that is not enough it is enough

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1 year

So yours was the only masked face at the office and in the store on the subway and in the waiting room at least now you know the answer to your teacher’s question of if you would be willing to do the right thing even if you were the only one doing it.

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2 years

I know an old punk whose pierced nose remains hidden behind the N95 mask he dutifully wears and when I ask him if he still wears it because his aesthetic has never cared for norms he replies that he wears it because nothing is more punk than giving a shit about other people.

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8 months

My boss politely inquired how much longer I plan on wearing a mask for and so I replied by reminding him of how just the other day he had commented that I was the only person who hadn’t already taken multiple sick days this year and I could tell he didn’t like this answer.

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1 year

My supervisor complains that everyone is sick on any given day half the office is empty and yet he has noticed that I am always at my desk so he asks what my secret is and so I reply that I must be lucky as I adjust the straps on my mask.

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Plague Poems

3 years

Do not let the fact that it could have been even worse lead you to forget that it did not have to be this bad.

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3 years

Stop saying that we are exactly where we were a year ago at this point last year we were still able to hope that the pandemic would end once the vaccines arrived.

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2 years

I know you are tired of being reminded that the pandemic has not ended but please understand many of us are tired of having to keep reminding you.

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2 years

When the man in the shop asked me if I was going to keep wearing my mask forever I replied by asking him if he was going to keep getting strangely ill forever and I could tell immediately that he did not like my question.

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2 years

They are not angry with you for wearing a mask they are angry with you for reminding them that the pandemic is not over.

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27 days

She tells me she is worried about me, with her hand on my wrist she asks if continuing to wear a mask might be bad for my mental health, and because I love her I do not say that what has been bad for my mental health is that my friends and loved ones have taken their masks off.

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Plague Poems

19 days

While shopping for groceries I passed by a young couple who were kissing in the aisle and I thought to myself they must love each other. And a few aisles over I passed another young couple who were both masked and I thought to myself oh, they must really love each other

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2 years

You keep telling me that the pandemic is over but the more you insist the more loudly you shout the more furious you get the more I believe that the person you are trying to convince is not me, but you.

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Plague Poems

1 year

If you are struggling to understand what it means for the emergency to be over as the pandemic continues here is a useful comparison: it is like removing the batteries from that bothersome shrieking smoke detector so you can make peace with living in a building that is aflame

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2 months

I asked the professor if she was ready for the new semester and she replied by saying that apparently about 1 in 37 people in the US currently have COVID and when I asked what this had to do with the semester she said all of her classes have more than 37 people in them.

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3 years

Apparently it is encouraging news really encouraging news that most of the deaths (over 75% of them) are occurring in people like my mother my brother-in-law my friend my cousin the people who were unwell to begin with though it is doubtful they find that news very encouraging.

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22 days

My employer asked for all of us to observe a moment of silence in memory of a past tragedy and as we stood there the silence was interrupted by coughs from a current tragedy.

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2 years

If you are wondering “what it’s like to wear masks for COVID when most others have long since moved on” it is like heaving a bucket of water at a burning building while all around you others are throwing buckets of gas and all of you are together in that burning building.

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1 year

I worry I have lost my remaining patience usually when I am mocked for still wearing a mask I say nothing not wanting a confrontation I just walk away, but today as I left my car a man ridiculed my mask so I pointed at the sky and loudly stated “you can see the fucking smoke.”

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Plague Poems

4 months

If you ask me “were you like this before the pandemic?” I will be honest with you and respond that no I was not like this before the pandemic, for you see before the pandemic I truly believed (I foolishly believed) that in the face of catastrophe we would stand together.

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Plague Poems

3 years

You long for crowded bars full theaters sweaty dancehalls and noisy restaurants but the normal you miss that you ache for is not a physical location it was the peace of mind you had when you believed your society could manage a pandemic that is a normal to which you cannot return

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8 months

I have seen it reported that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is planning to drop its five-day COVID isolation guidelines which suggests that it is time for the CDC to drop the words Control and Prevention from its name.

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8 months

I do not miss the pandemic’s early days but as last week was the fourth in a row in which the plague claimed more than 2,000 lives and the twentieth in a row in which the plague claimed more than 1,000 lives I must confess that I miss the days when such numbers still shocked us.

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8 months

All of us were told that we must be willing to make sacrifices unfortunately as it turns out some of us are the sacrifice others are willing to make.

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3 years

The thing I miss most from life before the pandemic is not going maskless, sitting in movie theaters, attending crowded gatherings, or dancing in noisy bars. No, that which I miss most from life before is believing that we would not calmly accept seven hundred thousand deaths.

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Plague Poems

2 years

At first, I told myself that I just had to make it to the summer then I told myself that I just had to make it to the vaccine after that I told myself that I just had to make it to the first booster then to the second booster and now I just try to make it through each week.

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3 months

According to my sister I worry too much just look around (she says) nobody else is worried so you don't need to either, and I am not sure how exactly to tell her that the fact that no one else seems particularly worried is one of the things that I find so worrisome.

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Plague Poems

2 years

Believe me I want to attend the holiday party and join you at the bar I want to eat at the new restaurant and sit in a movie theater again please do not interpret my reticence as disinterest it is just that of all the things I want what I desire most is to avoid the plague.

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1 year

I will admit that I am tired yes, I am very tired but my exhaustion is not mask fatigue or vaccine fatigue or precaution fatigue no, it is not even that I am tired of living with the virus but rather that I am tired of living surrounded by such indifference.

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11 months

In year one it was dangerous so we canceled our gatherings. In year two we were careful so we tested before our gatherings. In year three we were shocked when we fell ill after our gatherings. Now in year four we’re over it so we invite the virus to our gatherings.

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1 month

As I watched speaker after speaker describing the pandemic in the past tense I could not help but wonder how many of those gathered in the arena were at that very moment contracting the virus in the present tense.

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8 months

In all honesty I don’t really miss who I was before this for I haven’t changed particularly much a few more gray hairs, a bit more tired, some outfit additions, but who I am now is mostly who I was, what I miss what I really miss is who I thought other people were before this.

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2 months

An open message to the stranger who has accused me of being a paid shill: I, and my empty bank account, regretfully wish to inform you that unfortunately there is no money in asking people to try to take care of each other.

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8 months

According to my brother-in-law this virus was cooked up in a lab and nefariously released upon the unsuspecting public as part of a conspiracy to depopulate the planet but when I ask him if he is doing anything to protect himself from this virus he tells me it’s just the flu.

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6 months

When he asks why I’m wearing a mask I tell him it’s because if there is someone here wearing a mask I don’t want them to feel alone and when he points out that I’m currently the only one masked I look at him and say yes, but that could change.

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1 year

When they announced that the public health crisis has ended they did not mean that the danger to the public is over and done with they just meant that now should you fall ill in this ongoing health crisis you are on your own.

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2 years

We used to say when the pandemic was over we would get a drink at our old spot and as the pandemic dragged on we kept waiting but now we must delay again for you have moved across the country which I suppose is fine for the pandemic hasn’t ended and besides our old spot closed.

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3 months

My friends keep telling me they are ready to change the world, but when I ask them if they are ready to wear a mask they tell me to move on, yes, my friends keep telling me they are ready to change the world just so long as they do not have to change themselves.

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Plague Poems

5 months

After my last lecture my always-masked student quietly asked me if there was a reason why I had worn a mask during all of my lectures and so I told them that I always wore it because I have a student who always wears one.

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6 months

New polling finds that 12% of Americans typically wear a mask in public which just goes to show that though 100% of us are still in this mess together only 12% of us are truly in it together.

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1 year

My friend even if I was certain that we are doomed tomorrow I would still try to take care of you today.

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Plague Poems

2 years

The package of cookies in the back of the cupboard and I, have so much in common for we were both best before March 2020.

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1 year

After I told him at yesterday’s meeting that I was wearing a mask so that anyone else masking would not be alone he arrived at today’s meeting wearing a mask and though we were but two in a room of seventy for a brief moment I remembered how hope feels.

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4 months

I asked my friend the historian how this day will be remembered and after a moment she replied that she is worried today’s most significant event might turn out to be a sick dairy worker experiencing respiratory symptoms.

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2 years

As it turns out living in the midst of a mass death event results in a drop in test scores right alongside the drop in life expectancy.

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7 months

Celebrities keep canceling events due to some odd virus Coworkers keep missing work due to some odd virus Friends keep struggling with symptoms due to some odd virus But should you comment that we are still in a pandemic you will be looked at as if you said something odd.

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2 years

At my 1st shot I was confident confident we were in this together At my 2nd shot I was hopeful hopeful about the pandemic’s end At my 3rd shot I was relieved relieved for further protection And at my 4th shot I was not confident or hopeful or relieved just tired so very tired

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Plague Poems

1 year

Should you see me having fallen by the wayside please just know it is not that I fell, but that I was dropped I was pushed I was tripped believe me, I was trying I was trying not to fall so should you see me having fallen by the wayside please my friend stop and help me back up

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Plague Poems

1 year

Should the plague take me please do not bother sending flowers or making charitable donations no, in lieu of such things please just wear a fucking mask.

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3 years

After many months of tireless effort we have finally succeeded in flattening the curve unfortunately we have flattened it against the y-axis.

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3 months

Just last week the president said the he “ended the pandemic,” and just this evening through the president the virus said the pandemic has not ended.

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2 years

The numbers really don’t look so bad once you’ve stopped counting.

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3 months

When I despair my kind friend reminds me that wearing a mask is an act of love, and when I tell her there are days when I wear it not out of love but out of anger and spite, my kind friend responds: isn’t it wonderful to turn your anger and spite into an act of love.

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Plague Poems

7 months

The first plague poem was posted on 3/16/20. 4 years and more than 4,000 poems later, the pandemic hasn’t ended. Thank you for your support, I hope some of these have made you feel less alone. The work continues. Poems by week: Take care of each other.

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* The Plague Poems are an attempt to document the COVID-19 pandemic. The first Plague Poems were posted on Twitter by the account @PlaguePoems on March 16, 2020. Since then, new poems have been pos…

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@PlaguePoems

Plague Poems

5 years

It is said that during the plague the bard wrote King Lear. Perhaps, but how many did not live to see it performed?

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2 years

What? Are you really going to wear that mask forever? No, I have no intention of wearing this mask forever though I figure I will keep wearing it during the pandemic.

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5 months

If only I knew how to convince people that they should care about sick cattle and dead birds but I don’t even know how to convince people that they should care about other people.

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9 months

I have not bothered to make a resolution you see, several years ago I resolved to survive the pandemic and as this new year begins I’m still quite busy trying to fulfill that old resolution.

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7 months

My aunt, the doctor, told me a new joke. She asked: What do COVID and a Boeing plane have in common? I said I did not know. And so she answered: They’re both examples of airborne dangers. And then neither one of us laughed.

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10 months

My aunt, the doctor, told me a joke: What do you call a pandemic that people pretend is over? I told her I did not know. And so she said: You call it a pandemic. And then neither of us laughed.

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1 month

A word of advice for those who are preparing to teach while wearing a mask: Should a student ask why you are still wearing a mask, kindly but firmly tell them that you are wearing one so that any of your students who need to wear a mask will know that they are not alone.

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3 months

You’ve probably heard that in the summer when someone tells you to put on sunscreen what they are saying is that they care about you. So please hear me when I say that in a pandemic when someone tells you to put on a mask what they are saying is that they care about you.

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5 months

Apparently, when the zookeeper said “meerkats can catch viruses like COVID and the flu” the visitors happily put on masks to help protect them, so now you know that if you want your friends and family and coworkers to wear a mask to protect you all you need to do is be a meerkat.

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2 years

I wish you were as angry with the people who are prolonging the pandemic as you are with the people who remind you that the pandemic has not ended.

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1 year

I confess, when I hear the WHO say “We will continue to see waves of COVID19, the virus is still evolving… we do not yet have a predictable pattern of evolution, we don’t have seasonality, we are at risk for more severe variants” it sounds to me like the emergency isn’t over.

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2 years

Remember: even now after all this time you still have not survived the plague, even now you still have only survived the plague thus far.

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10 months

My aunt, the doctor, told me a new joke: How can you tell that it’s getting really bad out there? I said I did not know, so she answered: Because now even the director of the CDC is recommending masks. And neither of us laughed.

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2 months

When the historians write of this day (and the historians will write of this day) I wonder how many of them will note the announcement was made while he was recovering at home sick with the virus from the pandemic that he had claimed he ended.

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1 year

Congratulations, if you are reading this it means that you have survived the emergency portion of the pandemic now all you have to do is manage to survive the rest of it.

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7 months

The headlines say that the CDC is shortening isolation periods the headlines mean that the CDC is shortening lifespans.

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7 months

That you have survived four years of the pandemic does not mean that you have survived the pandemic.

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2 years

An apology, to the friend who complained: I know that these silly poems are repetitive and repetitive not in a good way but in my defense this pandemic is also repetitive and repetitive not in a good way.

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Plague Poems

26 days

Think nothing of your disappointing summer. The book you were hoping to write remains unwritten. The trip you were hoping to take remains untaken. The love you were hoping to find remains unfound. You survived another pandemic summer and that is enough to hope for.

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2 years

And now our losses have truly become incalculable for we have stopped trying to calculate them.

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10 months

My friend you have survived the pandemic’s first year My friend you have survived the pandemic’s second year My friend you have survived the pandemic’s third year And now you have even survived the pandemic’s fourth year But, my friend, you have not yet survived the pandemic.

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3 years

If you are wondering why the start of this year feels so much worse than the start of last year know that it is because a year ago at this time you still had hope.

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1 year

It is just unrealistic to expect the public will make any sacrifices for the sake of public health —at least, that is what he said, after driving his car sober and seatbelted to a restaurant where no one is allowed to smoke and at which the employees must wash their hands.

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4 months

Do not believe them when they tell you that masks must be banned to prevent crime you must listen carefully to what they are really telling you, what they are really telling you is: if they can they will make it a crime for us to take care of each other.

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5 months

Is it time to panic? No, it is not time to panic. But when the CDC asks for personal protective equipment to be made “available to workers on dairy farms, poultry farms, and in slaughterhouses” it is probably time for you not to panic, but to order more respirators.

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7 months

Four years ago my office emptied as we were told to work from home and though those days were lonely ones there was a comfort in knowing that so many of us were doing the same thing but now I sit in an office surrounded by sick coworkers and these days just feel even lonelier.

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2 years

We must not allow children to see masked faces for it might give them the impression that some people believe they have a duty to protect one another and we wouldn’t want children thinking that.

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11 months

You can tell that you are living in the dark times if when they ask you if you have heard the terrible news you have to respond by asking them which terrible news they mean.

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3 years

When I look back now at the plague’s early days I do not miss the uncertainty the pharmacy’s empty shelves or the panic in people’s eyes though I will admit I do quite miss believing that it would not last long and the idea that we would get through it together.

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9 months

When this is over the historians will sift through the records and wonder how it was that so many people went about their lives quietly and calmly while falling into the abyss and should you find this my dear historian please know some of us wondered about that at the time.

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1 year

I know, my friend, that you are tired of hearing about the virus but please understand there are many people who are very tired of trying to get you to listen.

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2 months

Please remember even now you have not survived the pandemic rather, you are surviving the pandemic, please remember this especially now as it increasingly seems that quite soon you will be surviving the pandemics.

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3 months

Quietly and calmly without fanfare or fireworks the CDC noted “COVID-19 can surge throughout the year” but this admission was made quietly and calmly without fanfare or fireworks so as not to discourage anyone from attending a barbecue.

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6 months

He asks me why I am wearing a mask don’t I know they aren’t required anymore? And I want to tell him how sad it is that so many people are only willing to help each other if they are required to, but I am tired so instead I just say: yes, I know they aren’t required anymore.

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2 years

So the summer is ending with your hopes unmet there were no adventures the books are still unread your projects remain in progress you did not even get around to replacing the bed frame but give yourself credit you survived a third summer of plague that should be worth something

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2 years

I freely admit that I am not a doctor, epidemiologist, nurse, or other medical professional but it seems to me that if we truly want to defeat the virus perhaps we should try to stop spreading it.

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3 years

Do not fear the virus fear the things the virus has revealed about your society.

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2 years

I know you long to see a friendly smile but please understand that a mask is a friendly smile.

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1 year

Should you find yourself called weird for still wearing a mask you just need to remember that in our present society it is considered weird to give a damn about other people.

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2 years

They say that it is simply too difficult to teach people how to properly put on a mask as they stand there in shoes that someone once taught them how to properly tie.

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3 months

After their consistently masked daughter spoke out against mask bans an insider noted that her celebrity parents “support her on whatever she chooses to do” and while it is wonderful they support her, it is unfortunate they do not support her enough to wear masks alongside her.

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8 months

I do not really know what the end of the pandemic looks like though I feel confident that more than 1,000 people dying for twenty-one weeks in a row is not what the end of the pandemic looks like.

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1 year

Dear friend, a sincere apology I know that my words are often rather repetitive please believe me it is not intentional but to be honest with you I only ever really say one thing and it’s getting more difficult to find new ways to say that we should take care of each other.

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5 months

Occasionally I see a couple out in public with one masked and the other bare faced or a photo of a family with only one masked member and when I see such things I wonder how the masked one must be feeling and then I look over at my unmasked partner and I think to myself: oh.

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Plague Poems

2 years

By today’s end the pandemic will be over for hundreds by the week’s end the pandemic will be over for thousands I hope that you and yours will not be among them.

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@PlaguePoems

Plague Poems

3 years

When we hoped that the twenties would be roaring we did not mean like this.

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