There is tragedy

In this world

Devastation upon devastation

I cannot begin to describe it

I will not try

Enough to tell

My heart’s sadness

My mind’s despair

My feelings of being

On obsolete sidelines

Watching in the modern age

Of television

Exhausting struggles

Of those in its midst

The ravages of this

Pandemic

Its havoc     destruction

The heartbreak

 

A question     this question

Sticks like glue

To every part of my being

There are far far too

Many

I would ask of it

Why     Why     no vaccine

Why

It is like a serving

Of a specially loved

Food

Any kind

They partake of

But they turn away

Tho their stomach growls

From hunger pangs

 

In the year

1351

Half the population

In the known world

Died from Bubonic Plague

Called the Black Death

No vaccine     no vaccine

To save them

Some who could

Escaped to the

Countryside

In cities     small towns

Carts were pulled

Up and down

The crowded filth laden

Cobblestone streets     lanes

Alleyways

The call     Bring out your dead

Bring out your dead

Echoes into this modern

Time

There is a difference

A huge difference

It does not have to be

This way

It doesn’t have to

Be

 

There is a gift     a blessed

Solution

In this     the twenty-first

Century

I am grateful for it

This miracle     this one word

Vaccine

photo credit