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Plague Poems

@plaguepoems.bsky.social

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A record of the plague years. Z”L. https://librarianshipwreck.wordpress.com/plague-poems/

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Plague Poems @plaguepoems.bsky.social · 4d

In this moment
are we still plagued
by an actual plague?
Yes, in this moment
we are still plagued
by an actual plague.
Though unfortunately
in this moment
an actual plague
is not the only thing
that plagues us.

*

The 291st week of plague poems…
librarianshipwreck.wordpress.com/2025/10/09/p...

Plague Poems – The Two-Hundred-and-Ninety-First Week

I asked a lawyer about the list of extremism indicators and he said: worry, but don’t worry too much these won’t stand up in court. And then I asked a historian about the list of extrem…

librarianshipwreck.wordpress.com

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Plague Poems @plaguepoems.bsky.social · 17h

As we joked about aging
a friend said:
“I’m so old
my knees always hurt”

And another said:
“I’m so old
I tweak my back by standing”

Still another said:
“I’m so old
I can’t smell anything anymore”

And though it was my turn
instead I said:
“your loss of smell
isn’t from aging.”

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Plague Poems @plaguepoems.bsky.social · 20h

When I ask
how her birthday was
she informs me
it was fun, but
every year
after her birthday festivities
she gets ill,
she says she doesn’t know
where she caught it
but as she listed
where all she went
I couldn’t be sure
which of those places
she had caught it at either.

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Plague Poems @plaguepoems.bsky.social · 22h

According to a new study
by Yale researchers
Covid-19 continues
to be driving a large number
of work absences,
which is an important reminder
that it is not the case
that people are “quiet quitting,”
rather it’s the case
that this virus just won’t quit.

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Plague Poems @plaguepoems.bsky.social · 1d

A word of caution:
if you try to write someone
about the Stratus variant
you may find
that autocorrect turns
“Stratus” into status,
so please keep that in mind
for Stratus is the variant
and the status
is that far too many people have it.

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Plague Poems @plaguepoems.bsky.social · 1d

In the river
I saw swimmers
next to a sign which read:
“Warning
no swimming or diving,
undertow, shallow areas,
and hidden objects
may cause injury,”
and as I looked from the words
to the swimmers
I understood:
we always think
the warning signs
are meant for someone else.

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Plague Poems @plaguepoems.bsky.social · 1d

The law of headlines
is if it ends with a “?”
the answer is: “no,”
but when you see a headline
which reads:
“Cold, flu, Covid:
Why is everyone sick right now?”
remember,
the law of Covid headlines
is if it ends with a “?”
the answer is:
“because the pandemic isn’t over.”

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Plague Poems @plaguepoems.bsky.social · 1d

My coworker
who loves the autumn
was in a dejected mood,
and when I asked what was wrong
she told me there’s something off
with the pumpkin things this year
they don’t taste or smell right,
and though she’s been sick,
she’s sure
all of the companies
must have changed something.

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Plague Poems @plaguepoems.bsky.social · 2d

There are times
when I see headlines
about the state
of it all
and I think to myself:
this is a sick society.

And
there are times
when I see headlines
about the state
of the pandemic
and I remind myself:
this is a sick society.

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Plague Poems @plaguepoems.bsky.social · 4d

On the occasion
of the old punk
becoming an even older punk
I called to wish them well,
and when I asked
how they maintained
their youthful energy
(even after all these years)
the old punk replied:
anger, bitterness,
and an undying belief
that a better world
is worth fighting for.

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Plague Poems @plaguepoems.bsky.social · 4d

The meeting began
with an icebreaker:
“which of your skills
would be most useful
if you found yourself
sent back in time
to the Middle Ages?”
and as I looked around
at all the unmasked faces
I was tempted to say:
I know how to
avoid the plague,
but instead I just said:
I can knit.

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Plague Poems @plaguepoems.bsky.social · 4d

Plague Poems – The Two-Hundred-and-Ninety-First Week

I asked a lawyer about the list of extremism indicators and he said: worry, but don’t worry too much these won’t stand up in court. And then I asked a historian about the list of extrem…

librarianshipwreck.wordpress.com

7 47

Plague Poems @plaguepoems.bsky.social · 4d

I saw a recent headline
which announced
“Mask mandates return
in parts of the Bay Area
as virus season nears,”
and while I suppose
the return
of precautionary measures
is a good thing
I can’t help but think
that at this point
every season is virus season.

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Plague Poems @plaguepoems.bsky.social · 4d

As he came up next to me
in the hardware store
the burly man
took one look at my mask
and asked:
“dealing with concrete dust?”
and though I was not,
I simply said, “yeah,”
so the next time you are asked
why you are masking
just tell them that you
are dealing with concrete dust.

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Plague Poems @plaguepoems.bsky.social · 5d

When I was young
I thought I’d help
this world
by writing novels.

But I grew up,
and when I was older
I thought I’d help
this world
by educating others.

But I grew up,
and now, even older
I think I don’t know
how to help this world
so I’ll wear a mask
until I figure that out.

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Plague Poems @plaguepoems.bsky.social · 5d

It can be difficult
to keep up
with the terminology
used by young people,
so please know:
when you hear young people
say that they and their friends
have caught “the throat virus,”
they are just describing
the same virus
that their elders
also refuse to admit is Covid.

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Plague Poems @plaguepoems.bsky.social · 5d

According to a new study
conducted in a hospital
“Airborne SARS-CoV-2
may transmit infection
after more than 4 hours,”
so the question
you must ask yourself
is not if you are in a hospital,
but if you are somewhere
that someone was exhaling
SARS-CoV-2
in the last 4 or 5 hours.

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Plague Poems @plaguepoems.bsky.social · 6d

I called him to wish him well
on his birthday
and as we talked he said:
“we’re getting old,
but this year
this year I really felt it,”
and though I wanted to say
“what you’re feeling
is that you’ve had Covid six times”
it was his birthday
so I just said;
yeah, we’re getting old.

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Plague Poems @plaguepoems.bsky.social · 6d

With every new variant
with every new wave
there are warnings
of which new symptoms
you need to watch for,
and yet
with every new variant
with every new wave
the main symptom
you need to watch for
is everyone around you
insisting that they
just have a weird cold.

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Plague Poems @plaguepoems.bsky.social · 6d

I know, I know,
of course, I know,
that in these dark times
there is too much bad news
to keep track of it all,
but amidst all that bad news
you should know
a new study has found
“SARS-CoV-2 infection
heightens the risk
of developing HPV-related
carcinoma in situ and cancer.”

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Plague Poems @plaguepoems.bsky.social · 6d

When worried
my friend who has read
too much critical theory
always quotes the line:
“The only thing
that goes against my pessimism
is the fact that we
still carry on thinking today,”
so I sent him an article
about AI use, and he replied:
some of us
still carry on thinking today.

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Plague Poems @plaguepoems.bsky.social · 6d

My colleague
who has committed herself
to not getting sick
has noticed I am rarely ill
and so she asked me
what my secret is,
and as I adjusted my mask
I told her
that I have no secret,
and after staring at me
she narrowed her eyes
and said:
I bet you meditate, is that it?

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Plague Poems @plaguepoems.bsky.social · 7d

My friend
the optimist insists
that at core
most people
are basically
good.

My friend
the pessimist insists
that at core
most people
are basically
bad.

I worry,
my friends,
that at core
most people
are basically
unwilling to be inconvenienced.

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Plague Poems @plaguepoems.bsky.social · 7d

As we waited
for the meeting to start
my work-friend confided
that he kind of misses the days
when meetings were online
as that way at least
he could see people’s cats,
and as I watched a coworker
across the room
coughing open-mouthed,
I sighed and said:
I miss those days too.

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Plague Poems @plaguepoems.bsky.social · 7d

People keep telling me
we have bigger problems
much bigger problems
than the virus,
and they are right
of course, they are right,
for a virus is a small problem
so small in fact
you need a microscope to see it,
but despite its size
this virus
is still very much a problem.

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Plague Poems @plaguepoems.bsky.social · 7d

Before class
I heard several students
discussing which variants
they had acquired,
fortunately
they were talking about
variants of a pop album
they had acquired,
unfortunately
the hoarse voices
they were talking with
suggested they had acquired
another kind of variant as well.

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