I keep seeing clips
being shared everywhere
about how we need
“to love our neighbors,”
and we do, and we do,
and we need to remember
that loving your neighbor
is not just something
you do on Election Day,
it is something
you must do every day.
My colleague
had to cancel our meeting
to go pick up his son
who was sick at school,
and as he grumbled
“my kids
are always getting sick,”
I wanted to say
“aren’t we all,”
but instead I just said:
“I hope he feels better soon.”
Now
that it is November
stores have put away
the pumpkins, the skulls,
and the orange leaves
to replace them with
the snowmen, the wreathes,
and the smiling santas,
but one thing
that has not changed
is the stores are still full
of coughing people.
When I asked
my friend, the historian,
about what happened
last night
she said history
had been made.
When I asked
my friend, the activist,
about what happened
last night
she said history
is about what we do next.
And
if the results
are what
we expected?
Take care of each other.
And if the results are worse than we expected? Take care of each other.
And if the results are better than we expected? Take care of each other.
And if
And if.
Take care of each other.
The climatologist
told me
the climate numbers
don’t look good.
The epidemiologist
told me
says the case numbers
don’t look good.
The economist
told me
the inflation numbers
don’t look good.
The activist
told me
the election numbers
don’t look at them yet.
A word of advice
to those who find themselves
distractedly doomscrolling
through election updates:
please take a break,
and instead
try doomscrolling
through climate news,
or through outbreak news,
and remember: the election
isn’t the only thing
worth worrying about.
Before you go
to the polls today
please make sure:
to check your registration,
to research the issues,
to check your polling place,
and also
you might as well
put on a mask,
for you would not want
to pick up a virus
while picking candidates.
I confess:
I do not know
what will happen
tomorrow,
but what I do know
is that whatever happens
tomorrow
we will still need
to take care
of one another.
As you wait to find out
what will happen
in Georgia and Iowa
in Kansas and Maine
in Michigan and Mississippi
in Ohio and Texas,
you should know that
what has happened
in the state of Washington
is that someone
has died of bird flu
after being exposed
to infected cows.
It is understandable
if this week
the main count
you are focused on
has to do with votes,
but please know
that the count
of deaths
in the Ebola outbreak
(ongoing in Congo)
has passed 5,000.
Should the respond
(and they will)
to the mask on your face
by telling you
“that Halloween is over,”
calmly but firmly reply
that, yes, Halloween is over
but unfortunately Covid is not.
A word of advice:
if you are wondering
how to make your costume
for Halloween sexy,
just put on
a proper mask,
for really
there is nothing sexier,
than someone
who cares about other people.
Before the pandemic
when I would watch
scary movies
I would find them to be
so unrealistic,
for what real person
would just ignore
clear signs that they
were in danger?
But at this point
I have learned that isn’t
so unrealistic, no,
it isn’t so unrealistic at all.
In the back of the drawer
I found the watch
that I lost
at the start of the pandemic,
so I kept digging
to see if I could find
the other things
that I lost
at the start of the pandemic,
but (alas) my faith
in other people wasn’t in there.
*
Up in Canada
hospitals are testing
“Real-Time Disinfection
of the Air”
to protect people
from getting infected
at the hospital,
but here in the US
we have a simpler way
to protect people
from getting infected
at the hospital:
we make it too expensive
to go to there.
A reminder
for my cautious friends:
by October’s end
everyone is accustomed
to everywhere seeing
skeletons and ghosts
coffins and tombstones,
but please understand
none of those sights
reminds people
of their own mortality
more than you
in an N95 mask does.
When I was young
I heard some enterprising
and engaging captain
say that the future
could be a place wherein
“we work to better ourselves
and the rest of humanity,”
and though I knew
that I might not see that day
I always thought
it was up to each of us to
make it so.
I keep hearing people say
that this or that candidate
is completely screwed,
or that this or that party
is completely screwed,
that this or that state
is completely screwed,
and I have also heard
it reported
that Arizona has had
its first
new world screwworm infection.
The masked barista
(seeing my mask)
asked if I was also
trying to avoid
“the pumpkin plague,”
and when I asked
what that was she said
it’s what her coworkers
and customers
have right now,
and I must say
“the pumpkin plague”
is a new way
of spelling Covid.