Mind your diet
I, virus
have some shrewd advice
for humans such as you:
if you eat everything
I and my family
will come and eat you.
Don't say
you haven't been warned!
Declaration of war, the virus responds
All across the world
your leaders are declaring war
against little me!
Enough to give me a big head
as I jump like a flea
from one resting place
to the next.
Pity your leaders
never thought
to declare war
on my ugly sister poverty -
well they did actually,
without really
meaning it.
Discriminating Virus
You people accuse me, virus,
of discrimination!
"Racial, social, and
targeting deprivation."
Look in the mirror, you people!
Just see how I follow
so precisely
the contours of
your own face.
Modest Virus
I am never
one to boast;
I just get on with doing my own thing
not unsuccessfully
you might say.
But, if I were to boast
I would describe myself
as "mother of invention"
stimulating technologies
promoting global conversations,
making isolation productive
bringing the future
a little closer.
Who else could do that like me!
Ultimately
Ultimately
we will come to the place
of unknowing.
We can pursue the virus
through science
through the vagaries
of theodicy
haunted by the question
"why?"
Camus chased the plague
through the avenues
of his mind;
came up with the courage
to live with the absurd,
to draw strength from
the game of unreason.
Job was tempted
to curse God and die.
But instead, rested his case
in the hands of the Almighty;
all that Job knew at the last
is that he had come to the place
of unknowing:
not an empty place,
the mystics have taught us
but a place infused by love
beyond our comprehending.
Living on borrowed time
Living on borrowed time -
What strange expression is this?
To whom should I pay back?
Or is death the remorseless
debt collector
whose visit has been held off
but a little
through pills
and operations?
Never mind.
Borrowed time is real time
to be lived through,
to be lived,
in a spirit of thanksgiving.
Mind you,
we are all living on borrowed time
from the word go.
Except we never pause
to think about it.
Symbols for the time of Virus
The writer asked "what symbols
speak to us
in this virus time?"
So I asked myself,
and from the depths
there spouted up
Jonah's whale.
"Why you?"
I ask.
"Why not?"
says he.
"I come at times to teach
those who run away
and those who fear;
my belly has plenty of room
for such as you."
So what can you teach us for this time?
"Well you could start by saying a Psalm or two.
Jonah found that most helpful,
but I recommend
making them up for yourselves –
much more relevant."
I know the Psalms kept the church going
for a thousand years,
but we live in different times.
"Yes – your insatiable search for entertainment;
nothing much I can provide on that front.
but I can teach you three fair things:
Faith, trust, endurance"
That's all very well, but I didn't
call you up for moral lessons.
"YOU didn't call me up at all.
I come when I come,
I go when I go."
Well what about these three fair things?
"Faith: grasp hold of what you have known; the one who gave
life will give life again;
Trust: the souls of the righteous are of good effect
many are walking your hospital wards;
Endurance: you know for Jonah, it was no picnic;
only when he learnt to step outside
the circle of self-preoccupation
did he see the "eject" button neatly placed
under my ribcage. Just remember
when you walk on terra firma once again,
you have been in the belly of the whale.
What a missed opportunity if you don't start over again,
over again to live the unspoken word"
The unspoken word?
"Love" said the whale,
and with a whoosh and
and a ginornmous splash
he regained the depths;
I look around, and all is still and calm
as if someone, somewhere is waiting.
Symbols in virus time 2
Next I found myself at home, still nursing the question,
Till I heard a kind of crashing in the garden,
A flower pot rolled across the lawn,
And right up to the French windows came
A donkey.
Quickly I step outside.
Who brought you here and what's your business?
I ask. – as if a donkey could speak;
"Don't imagine I'm a volunteer"
Replied the donkey
"My master put me up to this."
"Balaam son of Beor?"
I ask.
"Yes, who else.–
the dumbest master throughout all Moab...
and Israel-Palestine too
so dumb he needs protection from his donkey!"
Then what's your business here?
"I come to tell of angels, good and bad,
happy the one who knows the angel when she comes."
I see no angels here, I say.
"More fool you" the wretched ass replies
"Go look in the mirror,
what do you see?" demanded he.
"No asses ears for sure!" said I.
"But look again, and carefully!"
So I did look and saw rise from my shoulders bare
the sudden upward furl of feathers formed
in wings. The vision faded soon;
I hear the donkey's bray of mockery.
"Do you not see?" says he,
"you have the pristine power of good and ill,
on wings you rise or otherwise you fall
such is the destiny all humans bear;
you see no angels here
because you miss yourself!"
He kicked another flower pot flying
and plunged into the mists
that rose beyond.
And I was left to think things through.
And in this virus time, what can we do
If not attempt the angel task
of reaching out to others
not by touch
but now by prayer's intent
and spoken word across the void.
So when the evil angel does depart
We then may find ourselves,
and spread our wings.
Ascension in virus time
What can the Ascension mean
In these our virus times?
It can become our sursum corda,
to lift up our hearts to the heavenly realm
to see Christ enthroned above,
beyond the transient, ephemeral world
of plagues and torments,
famine and wars.
But if, for a moment,
we can ascend in heart and mind with Christ
in his glorious home-coming
still we are timebound,
clothed in the garments of mortality.
Like disciples at the glory on the mount,
we have to make our way back down again,
face old problems,
confront new reality.
And so I call Ascension a sure promise,
a glimpse of the beyond,
that where Christ is, we will be too,
raised up in our transfigured humanity,
partakers in his life of love;
for now Lord, we are here
just where we are with all its dangers
mindful of many others in their sadness,
thankful for your words
"I will be with you always,
even to the end."
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