Libertarian

If liberty means anything, it means

Responsibility. If it did not

We would be nothing more than libertines

Slowly strangled by our own garrotte.

True freedom lies in true society

In placing others' needs above your own;

We band together best when we are free

And tyrannize the worst when all alone.

With freedom comes no power to do ill

Or if there is, it is a strength unused;

It is not mere extension of the will:

To solipsize is to be self-abused.

Such liberty well-planted ever grows:

The freedom of my fist ends ere your nose.

Simple Fixes

We cannot let these deaths obscure

The other deaths we also could

Avoid. We do not have a cure

For COVID, but I think it would

Be nice, for once, to see a fall

In those kinds of mortality

That we could fix, since after all

So much comes from stupidity.

So much death lies in human hands:

We could do better. Let us drive

Safely on the road; let's eat

More carefully; let the demands

Of coal and gas no longer thrive;

And don't shoot black men in the street.

Hamlet in Quarantine

I thought I could be bounded in a shell

And count myself a king. But I was wrong;

A nut in theory is a notebound song

That needs the touch of instruments to tell

What is in key, and what is tuned unwell.

The worries I have hoarded all along

Return when I'm alone in horrid throng

And make my home a self-sustaining hell.

To rule here, as in hell, is mockery:

I cannot step a foot beyond myself

And every thought repeats what I have thought.

For mere sensation I destroy the crockery

And push my tumblers off of every shelf

Until I drink from mugs my uncle bought.

Normalcy

My daughter doesn't know it's quarantine;

She's never known a world that wasn't so.

We are the only faces she has seen

And for a while we're all she'll ever know.

She knows the sun from windows, mostly, though

By our good fortune, we possess a yard

And so we go outside. But she will grow

Fearful of others--even (this is hard)

Her own grandparents. Everything is marred

By COVID. She ought to be with people, but

The people are the threat from which we guard.

She's learning things--but I can't be sure what

And every day I worry she'll be sure

That this is normal, even with a cure.

Liberate

I would rather be sick of staying home

Than sick of anything else. I do not get

Why people will insist that they must roam

Despite the danger, and I am upset

That they ignore the way that they impact

Everyone around them. Liberty

Is not just being free to always act

Exactly as we wish. Society

Exists. We live in it. So act like it.

Don't make this about only you: we all

Share risks, and that means when you choose to flit

From place to place, the danger doesn't fall

On you alone. It's selfish to pretend

It's somehow safe for this to untimely end.

Collateral

The virus on its own would be enough

To kill some thousands, maybe millions more;

We like to think society is tough

But it was worse than we believed before,

So famines, poverty, and lack of care

Will do more damage than the virus will.

The virus is still spreading everywhere

And yet already we cannot refill

Our meager stock of just in time supplies.

Our hospitals engorge, we hoard, we act

Like all of this was somehow a surprise:

The details were, but we knew for a fact

Something like this could happen. When it did

We didn't plan, but closed our eyes and hid.

Empty

I thought that I had things to do.

I really did. So I made time.

But when the time came, then I knew

That it was nothing. And now I'm

Standing here completely bored.

I could find things to do, I think.

The world I'm in must still afford

Activities. And yet I sink

Into the couch and do not stir

For hours, playing on my phone.

In honesty I don't prefer

To do this even when alone

And yet I do. I am inert

Because I failed to self-divert.

Pandemic Life

I'm always worried now. And you are too.

I see it in the hunching of your back,

The way your fingers, with nothing to do,

Insist on moving; how you sometimes crack

The knuckles on one hand; the little itch

That shows up underneath your nose. I see

Because I feel it too. My muscles twitch

With endless unnecessary energy.

I cannot seem to turn my mind off or

To silence all my stressors. I can't sleep

And when I don't it makes me worry more.

So stress on stress builds up leap after leap.

I wish I could take all of it. But no; 

If I did that, your stress would just regrow.

Why We Remove The Wine

The Pesach wonder isn't that we fled

The land of slavery, or that as we sprinted,

Our knapsacks full of almost risen bread,

We actually escaped, or that God imprinted

Our people with a duty at Sinai.

It isn't manna falling from the sky.

It's that, after nine plagues that struck us all

Blood in the river, frogs on everyone,

Boils and locusts, lice and hail, the fall

Of sudden darkness cutting off the sun,

The dying cattle, flies in hordes unknown,

We huddled in our houses as death flew

Past blood-soaked lintels, and we heard the groan

That said we'd been passed over as he slew.

Friendly Advice Based on a Reading of the Gospels

Don't rush Easter. It's a Sunday thing;
And even then, it's rushed a little bit.
The prophecies to which he's said to fit
Claimed the third day; for three you have to wring
Every last bit of Saturday, and swing
A little Friday and a little Sunday. Sit
Today in silence, knowing that he will commit
The harrowing of hell. Tomorrow you can sing
Hallelujah, praise God; but today
Live in the moment, with him in the grave
The rock not yet pulled back. The women cry,
The men wander directionless and say
"What was the point of this?" Don't try to waive
The stretch of time when Jesus meant to die.