DISEASE BREEDS DISEASE

_____________________

 

Strange new ailment

Giving pneumonia-like symptoms

Has a ripple effect

Spanning our globe.

 

Floating on the wind, harm to health,

Diaspora of microbes--

Point of outbreak:

Wuhan, China.

 

Within a month, fate's transmission

Country by country. Bad news travels fast.

Reported cases of Coronavirus

Breeds a second disease.

 

One much older, equally contagious,

Easier to spot the signs.

Point of outbreak:

The human mind.

 

Modes of transmission:

Mainstream media,

Person-to-person contact.

Symptoms include:

 

Stereotyping,

Side glances,

Spiteful feelings

Disguised as jokes,

 

Bullying,

Swearing,

Unprovoked assaults,

Avoing restaurants,

 

Insulting

Internet memes,

Misinformation,

Discrimination,

 

Lumping together

Japanese, Korean,

Vietnamese, Laotian

And Thai

 

Under the heading of

"Chinese",

International

Travel bans,

 

Tendency to run from,

Duck and dodge

Straight black 

Hair, almond-shaped eyes, yellow skin,

 

Mistaken

Notion of

"Chinese =

Virus carrier"

 

And sudden memory loss

Of the simple fact

That Asian lives

Matter, too.

___________

W: 2.23.2020

 

[ From the book Rusty Gallows: Passages Against Hate, Vagabond Books, 2022. ]