Herd Immunity
Poetics in a covidious time
Origin Story
For want of a bolt, I wrote Herd ImmunityPoetics in a covidious time, a book I didn't know I had in me
It was a reader named Anonymous, a very prolific writer,
Who advised me to "stop fiddling around"
To set aside my ongoing, arch concept projects
And focus on what was on hand, "and simply publish"
Similar sentiments have been expressed over the years
I'm quite accustomed to such verbal sallies
They tend to be addressed in much stronger language
But, for whatever reason, this pithy volley
Instantly drew blood. Touché Anonymous
That same week a friend said he'd noticed a trend,
That the increasing gestures towards poetics
Accentuated perhaps by this slow moving pandemic
Seemed to be "bearing fruit", a covidious dividend
Who was I to argue? I'll accept praise from any section
Even if it pointed me towards a new direction
Thus encouraged, I took a closer look at things
And realized that, indeed, I had the makings
Of a new creation, a book of sorts, almost at the ready
Even as I was merely writing my way through the new normalcy
It just was not anything quite like what I was planning
Nor, confoundingly, was it in a form that I was expecting
The muse wills what she wants, I did some curating
And over the next months some further furious writing
I sent it around and my early readers haven't vetoed it
So here goes, I have a collection of toli to share, have at it
Herd Immunity (Poetics)
I guess it was four funerals and a weddingThis interlude has been quite the inversion
A closing ceremony of mounting disbelief
Tinged with wariness, dread and grief
Poetic gestures, they seem to stand together
At least to the eyes of this modern traveler
Journeys to the far regions of the mind
I hope you enjoy these pieces of a man
The slices of life mingle with the hatchet jobs
And the occasional dirges of mournful loss
These last dance with sundry trifles and whimsy
Along with my musings on cultural memory
As usual, there are meditations on small things
Their joys help me navigate my hypertext dreams
Mind you, I have my own jaundiced take on shell games
Heck, I even threw in a brief cultural history of shame
As an urban griot, and African town crier
I hew to the importance of biting satire
A lyrical stance on the necessity of permanent outrage
Still, I think you'll find plenty of laughter in my pages
A close look at mixed metaphors, rules and regulations
And the strange architecture of misdirection
Searching for meaning, an exiled soul in a harsh land
No one was coming, and everything was written in sand
In those pages where the sweet meets grief soup concoctions
You'll find some meditations on truth and reconciliation
Like the old man who lives in the park, so many paid the cost
The rest was buyer's remorse: what paradise have we lost?
Humanity knows no boundaries, no one is invincible
Abide with social living and the mosquito principle
The book is done, it's an integral part of my identity
Welcome to my world, I hope you enjoy it: Herd Immunity