Dystopic thinking today
as I work in the garden, contemplating Voltaire.
How has education
brought me to this point
of doubting all that I know?
History is not repeating itself.
How can this pandemic
be compared to the Spanish Flu of 1918?
We know so much more but do little.
Communication is faster
so what is going on in Italy
I can know right now.
In Spain the same. Now the US.
But look at the geography.
Look at the size of countries
and compare it to US.
Italy is smaller than Washington State.
How can there be comparisons?
The one common factor is
that the disease spreads quickly.
Test- track-and isolate. Too late.
The microbe is loose.
By accident or design?
Nobody knows or somebody knows.
Maybe we will never know.
What we do know is
that staying home keeps us safe.
Not everyone can stay home
so in Italy
there are still new cases regardless of a lockdown.
People have to go out to get food.
Whole families die at home.
After a month of staying at home,
groceries delivered and sterilized,
no outside visits,
I can’t say that I am lonely or stir crazy.
I like to stay home.
But what would it be like without internet,
without the food supply,
without air conditioning and lights?
In the winter, what if there was no heat?
What if there was no gas
to keep the car going if I wanted to relocate,
live in the mountains, hunt for food?
Are we being tossed back
into the Neanderthal of life
or just a temporary bleep in the radar
of what we always thought was progress?
Too many questions and who cares
what the answer is.
I find answers to be too dystopic.
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NaPoWriMo prompt to write 20 minutes spontaneous writing and make it a poem.