M Zaman
An Ode to COVID-19
Sly and stealthy, like your other brethren
you too have jumped from host to human;
(an animal, rogue with a wrathful ruse,
and pillager of habitats—all non-human).
A befitting response, a tiny strand of RNA;
a life; with a limitless capacity to mutate,
morph and live; gargantuan in gangly;
you let man know the limits of human
indigence; and of all those Anthropocene
Sins, a brilliant riposte to limitless insult.
This Earth is but a blue dot; precious and a
verdant ball, living and suspended; it is to be
shared; and thank you for reminding me that
you too, minuscule though, exist.
A poet and an accidental physician, M Zaman lives with his lovely wife on the Raquette River in a quaint college town on the foothills of the majestic Adirondacks, enchantingly irenic with rivulets full of toothsome water, and hills rarely trodden. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in High Shelf, Stardust Review, Black Horse Review, Cathexis Northwest Press, Ulalume Lighthouse La Piccioletta Barca. He has recently published a translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh into Bengla, his native language.
SUBMIT to What Rough Beast via our SUBMITTABLE site.
If you enjoyed today’s poem and you value What Rough Beast, consider making a donation to Indolent Books, a nonprofit poetry press.