The way I see it so many people wanta just pretend Covid isn't a thing and that anyone with immune issues who still needs to mask should just isolate forever to not ruin it for the rest of them, so if I CAN ruin it for the rest of them by bringing it up I always will

I saw a man
wearing a shirt that said
“if you aren’t outraged
you aren’t paying attention,”
and though I wanted
to tell him
that if he was paying attention
if he was really paying attention
in addition to the shirt
he would be wearing a mask,
instead I just said: nice shirt.

I hear calls for “civility”

I believe that many of us are mistaking docility for civility

I asked my friend, the activist,
for her thoughts
on the president saying
“no masks,”
and with a laugh
my friend, the activist, replied
that she thinks his statement
will probably lead
to more people wearing masks.

When I study history
I wonder how it was
that so many people
could just go about their days
as the world they knew ended,
but this afternoon
I responded to banal emails,
engaged in small talk,
and sat in pointless meetings,
so as I just went about my day
I thought to myself: oh.

People keep telling me
how alarmed they are
that the US is withdrawing
from the WHO,
and though they are right
to feel that way
I wish those people
were equally alarmed
when the WHO
tries to remind them
that “COVID-19
is still a global threat.”