Dystopic Thinking

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.

_______________

NaPoWriMo prompt to write 20 minutes spontaneous writing and make it a poem.

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Dystopic Thinking