as nature’s defence delivers its onslaught
– should we commit mass-self-slaughter
for the natural world –
or is it a mistake
a star-crossed affair
or the Doomsday dawning
the plastic shelves devoid
the streets forsaken
the drawn-back curtains
colourless,
pseudoplants on the sills, but
the hospitals are all but deserted.
journalists
thirsty for
the death-toll petroleum that feeds
fear-fire
eats our beloved humdrum
slaughters sense and civility.
you and i
dust
phantom-filled contraptions
swimming with the school
of fleeting, foolish fish
or swept away in flocks
herds and packs
we – not much better than animals.
malleable
as clay –
Prometheus should have chiselled us from stone.
so now can you see
it is
not your money or your name
dictators, tyrants, Jesus, armies
molecular science or quantum physics
not your ambition or your brawn
neither love nor hate
it is
the promise of decline
a whiff of death
seeping under your door
poisoning your grub,
our fear,
the fault in our humanity
spinning the earth.
but know! true also:
we suffer mostly through the suffering we fear.
so
let them write –
amor timorem vincit.
we’re all scared
but at least we’re scared together.
love
labs and prayers
hope and
courage –
the bedrock we must nurture.
since – still i can reach your fingertips
still i can
and share your laughter
and our history
we can kiss
with masked mouths
we can touch
through the desolation dry
we can make it through –
for only death can do us part
not dread or disease.
Boudica Mae Gast, Class of 2022, is a Literature major from Voorburg, The Netherlands
Sources
Image Credit: https://grow-media.co.uk/top-stories/places-of-poetry-project-provides-map-for-inspiration/
