DisCOVID Country
 
The whole disaster started long ago.
The human memory’s a palimpsest.
You never know the things you know you know.
 
Beyond the present’s crowded portico,
Ancestral horrors wait to be addressed.
The whole disaster started long ago.
 
COVID puts forth its horrible tableau;
Behind, the youth in the exploding vest.
You know you never know the things you know.
 
The dying whales, the Arctic’s melting snow,
Chemical weapons, Oppenheimer’s test:
The whole disaster started long ago.
 
The slavers and the Kommandants and co.,
The burnings, crucifixions, and the rest:
You know the things you never know you know.
 
Arcadia’s loss, Atlantis’ overthrow,
The little fruit that Eve could not digest:
The whole disaster started long ago.
You know the things you know you never know.
 
Julia Griffin


If you have any thoughts on this poem,  Julia Griffin   would be pleased to hear them.