From Some Nightmarish Vial

a villanelle

by Evan Mantyk

Did it emerge from some nightmarish vial?
Is it a weapon meant for killing us,
Like marching microscopic rank and file?

If so, it’d sweep a nation mile by mile;
The source is hard to trace, that’d be a plus.
Did it emerge from some nightmarish vial,

Invading bodies that then seek to rile
The masses with irrational animus
Like marching microscopic rank and file?

There is a strange equality to its style,
A sort of dark Darwinian calculus.
Did it emerge from some nightmarish vial?

Can money thrown at vaccines for a while
Appease a godless horde that swells like pus,
Like marching microscopic rank and file?

I see it now, its hungry, evil smile
Born out of jealous, selfish hate and thus
Did it emerge from some nightmarish vial
Like marching microscopic rank and file!

 

 

Chinese Communist Health Care

by Damian Robin

O, masked surgeon, delver in sliced flesh,
Incognito in an inner sanctum
Near immoral jails that keep good organs fresh,

Have no worries for your livelihood,
Your tenure or your state career’s momentum,
For your blades perform the service that they should.

Your skill set won’t be moved to stop diseases.
Your work of many years will still stay schtum.
You will not be transferred to care for coughs of wheezes,

Your cuts and thrusts can’t stab a virus dead.
Your knives are dull, out-sized beside a quantum
COVID-19 start-up and its viral spread.

In institutions that have lost all sane decorum
There are countless organs you can conjure up.
You save the lives and faces of the Party Forum
With red insider hands that stitch and cover up.

 

NOTE TO READERS: If you enjoyed this poem or other content, please consider making a donation to the Society of Classical Poets.

The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary.


Trending now:

7 Responses

    • Evan Mantyk

      Kathleen, thank you for reading. Whether the virus is manmade or not, I am not sure. There is compelling evidence, and either way, it may not matter. The point is that there is something virus-like, weapon-like, and manmade that is coming out of China (though it started in Europe), which is communism.

      Reply
      • Joseph S. Salemi

        When I consider the entire matter historically, I feel nothing but deep sorrow and regret over the fact that China — the bearer of one of the oldest and most beautiful civilizations ever to arise — was fatally infected with the mental disease known as socialism-communism-collectivism, and all of the sick ideas associated with that disease. And this disease is a pathology that comes from us in the West. Our “Enlightenment” and our liberalism and our social revolutions and the insanity coming out of German Idealism generated this pandemic. We infected the world with it.

  2. Cherryl

    Evan I think it is man made in a vial. By evil people who want to flex their muscles and show the world what can happen with a possible pandemic. IMO I believe there’s a P4 Lab in Wuhan, about 20 miles from the Seafood place where the 1st six 6 people got sick. This lab is where biochemicals are made. They have been trying to make a virus similar to the Sars Virus of 2003. It could have been leaked accidentally, or intentionally? Will we ever know the truth? I doubt it.

    Reply
  4. Jonathan Kinsman

    Topical but the iambs are off. Tsk tsk.
    “Did it emerge…”
    “If so, it’d sweep…”
    “I see it now…”

    How did this, this “it” get by the IP Police??? Haha!

    I enjoyed the unintended irony, always good in topical verse.

    Remember: we are all Kung Flu Fighters (fast as lightening!)

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.