THE STEGER Prize For Poetry
The Great Pandemic
by James Lopez
My fellow citizens I stand before you today....
At the end of a distant and bitter winter,
A great leader speaks to the people,
Flanked by millions below and above by sunless skies,
Equally exhausted from defending their lies.
To speak of the great pandemic that plagues us...
It breeds in the cavernous depths of our bodies,
It drips, like saliva — from our tongues.
We are Pavlov’s dogs; our mouths are stinging.
the bells of one-million churches are ringing.
With which many of us are still infected...
Decadent corpses shudder for a fleeting moment;
Nero’s bones clack together in applause.
Like those who chose to slumber, not lead,
We now play our fiddle and watch the world bleed.
Of which countless millions have suffered and died...
While heroes and villains may be well-known victims,
Its wrath is far greater on the unnamed and unknown.
While spirits from Auschwitz to Kigali weep,
Our sickness’ great toll continues to reap.
Whose unspeakable danger still looms...
It culminates into one moment now,
The great leader’s speech descend among living and fallen.
Among the ruins of this world of abstention,
Let our ears hear these voices and pay them attention.
I stand before you to plead for our failure.
So the great pandemic of our lives and those to come,
Is set before the countless souls that listen now—
As it has been, is now, and seemingly will be,
Our world is ill with apathy.
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