Rikki Santer
Camus Schools A President: A Cento with Passages from The Plague
We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. We have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.
A pestilence isn’t a thing made to man’s measure; therefore we tell ourselves that pestilence is a mere bogy of the mind, a bad dream that will pass away.
We think we have it very well under control. We have very little problem in this country at this moment—five—and those people are all recuperating successfully. But we’re working very closely with China and other countries, and we think it’s going to have a very good ending for us…that I can assure you.
There have been as many plagues as wars in history; yet always plagues and wars take people equally by surprise.
You know, a lot of people think that goes away in April with the heat—as the heat comes in…in April, when it gets warm—historically, that has been able to kill the virus.
Thus, in a middle course between these heights and depths, they drifted through life rather than lived, the prey of aimless days…like wandering shadows that could have acquired substance only by consenting to root themselves in the solid earth of their distress.
The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!
Stupidity has a knack of getting its way; as we should see if we were not always so much wrapped up in ourselves.
And again, when you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that’s a pretty good job we’ve done…especially with the fact that we’re going down, not up…We’re going very substantially down, not up…It’s going to disappear. One day—it’s like a miracle—it will disappear.
People are more often good than bad, though in fact that is not the question…the most appalling vice being the ignorance that thinks it knows everything…and there is no true goodness or fine love without the greatest possible degree of clear-sightedness.
Well, I think the 3.4% is really a false number.
It is in the thick of calamity that one gets hardened to the truth—in other words, to silence.
No, I’m not concerned at all. No, we’ve done a great job with it. And we’re prepared, and we’re doing a great job with it. And it will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.
I have no idea what’s awaiting me, or what will happen when this all ends. For the moment I know this: there are sick people and they need curing.
Rikki Santer is the author of Drop Draw (NightBallet Press, 2020), In Pearl Broth (Stubborn Mule Press, 2019), and six previous poetry collections. Her work has appeared in Ms. Magazine, Poetry East, Slab, Crab Orchard Review, RHINO, Grimm, Hotel Amerika, and Main Street Rag.
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