Pandemic

Shook; as your grocery store
Became a panoramic portrait of pandemonium

Shook; as no matter where you look
Instagram, Whatsapp, or Facebook, 
An endless pantheon of conspiracy theories 
About this virus, spread like fleas

Shook; that this disease
That was supposed to be so far overseas
With unbelievable ease
Simultaneously crushed prom dreams
Disney’s self esteem
Workout regimes
International sport teams
But birthed some fire memes
That serve as little beams
Of laughter in this expanding stream
Of sadness, anguish, and sorrow
Somehow … we try to find hope for tomorrow 

We search for answers, they inform
About the power of this storm
And the need to conform
To new social norms 
Opening the door to Pandora’s box 
Watching stats and curves
Yet hating what they reveal 
The more we learn, the less hope we feel
And we’re inundated with highlight reels
Of politicians panhandling phrases of perseverance 
Empty words to our internal commotion 
Of negative emotions 

So we give our devotion  
To Neverland 
Trusting Netflix, our Peter Pan, 
Numbing us to real hurt, real pain
I wonder if it numbs us to real stories
Of people below our social categories 
So as the privileged finesse
New successes to add to their excess 
While those under economic stress
Navigate society with even less 
We’ll only know their numbers not their names
I ponder if the end of this lockdown game
Will simultaneously be a moment of glory
And a continuation of a horror story
But will we be too numb to feel happy or sorry?