the masks of Covid-19
the masks of Covid-19
The Lord put the man in the Garden to eat.
He said, “You can have anything here
except the fruit
from that tree.”
The man asked, “Why?”
And God replied,
“Because when you know the truth,
you will most certainly die.”
Now the time came
when walking out of work
was a new project
at a different place,
the coworker I was with said,
“This is one of our leads.”
I recognized
the man on the forklift,
but he acted like
he didn’t know me.
“Nice mask,”
my coworker said
to the anonymous man.
His nose, mouth, and cheekbones
were covered with a cotton print,
a circus scene reminiscent
of Barnum & Bailey.
“See this elephant?”
He pointed to the animal
directly in front of his mouth
taking two fingers
and stuck his tongue between.
They laughed and looked at me.
I asked, “How do you eat an elephant?”
“I just showed you.”
Laughs again.
And I replied,
“One bite at a time.”
Now the Lord saw
that the man was alone,
so out of the ground
he formed the wild animals
and the birds in the sky,
two by two they were made,
but for the man
no suitable helper was found.
I walked out of the parking lot and it was hot,
twenty miles inland from the beach
and it was like where I was at
was too far for the cool air of the sea,
I drove home, parked underneath,
and rode an elevator up to my apartment alone.
So God caused the man to fall asleep
and took out one of his ribs
to make a woman for him,
He brought her to the man
and they were naked together,
feeling no shame,
but they were hungry.
This was when a serpent slipped in,
“If you have the need for something more,
then you should eat from that tree.”
“We can’t.”
“Oh you won’t die,” he said.
“God knows if you try
it’ll only open your eyes.”
She tried some and it was sweet,
she shared with her man and he agreed,
fast forward to today’s society
who’s hiding from an invisible disease
while it cripples the economy,
our eyes are now open
and after we realized we might die
we made coverings for ourselves
so that when death came
He wouldn’t realize.