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June 30, 2020

The Quarantine Chronicles, Day 77

DAY 77: Down at the cemetery
they're almost breaking down the gate
got dressed up and washed and
bought flowers to go with prayers
like Father, Mother, I miss you so
not like of all the good people pressing
to get in pushing others aside
with their lopsided masks
there are some contagious who
don't know that they came
to the cemetery today to send
others (t)here tomorrow, I hope
it's not a hot spot, a red zone, but what
irony, no respect for the new hours
nor for a line of who's first
social distancing is out, gotta
get to the tombs, gotta say hello/good-
bye to those who can't hear
say 'I love you' to those who don't
care, walk the tiny streets and
alleys of the mini-city of monu-
ments to the dead, by the living
pushing shoving yelling protesting
to get in.

I watched this on television
because I'm in no hurry to get
in, I don't need flowers, or
nice clothes, greeting or laments
-- I only need the sun, the air
and that I get
elsewhere.

June 29, 2020

The Quarantine Chronicles, Day 76

DAY 76: What is good? What is
bad? Are those questions with
answers? Is a plague, for example,
a bad thing to fight with all
possible means or should we just
let go and let die? Is death a
bad thing to mourn or are we
creating our own Rapture to
fulfill our faith's belief in
the Apocalypse? Are rules
good or do we just defy and do
what we want? Is truth good
or is everything fake, a conspiracy
against us in a world where
2 + 2 can give any result?
Is keeping your children safe
a value or after we voted to
kill our parents, our kids are
next? Is love good or bad,
our leader, Big Brother, has none,
should we be like him? Is money
good or bad, are we willing
to risk gruesome death alone
for ours, which we never got, or
theirs, which grows like a 
virus -- love of billions
infecting billions until there
may be billions of losses but
billions will remain to ask
-- what happened? what was
wrong with you lost people?
Many questions, few answers.

June 28, 2020

The Quarantine Chronicles, Day 75

DAY 75: I've always lied to you
but this time I'm telling you the
truth, the new truth, not the alter-
native truth, the post truth
truth squared, real reliable
facts -- believe me, it's safe
to go out -- I'm not doing it
myself but, I tell you, it's safe,
go on -- I'm not sending my
kids out, but I'll send grandma
-- oh, forgot, she's disappeared --
so, believe me, we'll be fine
better than before, the numbers
are great, the numbers I give you
believe me, virus is health,
death is life, plague is good,
war is peace, masks are bad,
poverty is wealth -- yours is
mine, that is -- oops, too much
honesty -- it's all propaganda
2 sides to every question, some
people say ...
Follow the rules and you'll be
obedient, and the new rules
say, there are no rules, go out
and party! kick some scaredy-
cat ass black brown yellow red
preferred -- and blue, we hate
blue because they make the
rules, enforce the rules, ump
to cop to blue state -- screw
you, we do what we gotta do.
Yahoo!

June 27, 2020

The Quarantine Chronicles, Day 74

DAY 74: Go bake some bread, I'd
prefer not to, paint another master-
piece, I'd prefer not, do your
prescribed exercises, I don't think
so, is depression setting in, I
don't care, I read good advice
on the internet -- coping strategies
and such -- I'm tired, leave
me alone.

They're calling the baseball game
on account of rain on a beautiful
clear day -- yeah, whatever -- but
millions risk their lives if we don't
all act responsibly -- that I'm
really sorry about -- let me get
my act together then I'll
take care of my business
again -- don't ask me
to shower though, there are
limits.

I saw a hecka lotta stupid people
out in front of the Capital
screaming, waving automatic
weapons, swastikas -- deplor-
ables, someone called them,
and, you know, they are
infecting one another without
protection, MAGA'TS dying
horrible deaths after all that brain-
washing -- at this point, at this point
the way I feel, hunkered down
to help the nurses, watching that guy
watching that guy with a rocket
launcher in a sandwich shop
undisturbed, on television -- 
oh, hell, if mutual contagion
is what they want --
just let them die.

June 26, 2020

The Quarantine Chronicles, Day 73

DAY 73: It started, oh Lord, when?
probably back when Barack Obama
ran for president -- the hate, the vile 
hatred, I don't remember 
hate that strong since the 1960s, 
after King's murder and the Kennedys, 
like the good ol' boys had sobered up,
the cities burned anew for Rodney King
the thing returned, then went away
but the whole country not drowned
in bloody red hatred -- race hatred --
like back then, 68 (unless you
count anti-Muslim post 9/11);
so Black Obama dared to be
our leader our face our voice
and the KKK was reborn! They
resisted him for 8 successful
years with every dirty trick
more moonshine, white lightning
they got their Fuhrer elected
-- Russian debts to payoff --
finally someone to turn on
with their one arm salutes.

Where does all this race hatred
come from, what happened
to love one another, decades of
integration, the faux-right
has crafted an identity from
trash talk radio and Fox cons-
piracies, ordinary people buy in,
souls are sold -- they're pissed poor
and vocally letting out -- they're half lushes
and psychos -- they're in your face
with hate of race -- they're
armed and dangerous -- Amer-
ican Nazis, American Republican
Nazis? and that's okay? 

Not in my New Normal.

June 25, 2020

The Quarantine Chronicles, Day 72

DAY 72: In 72 days our doorbell
has rung 4 times
I jumped every time
not recognizing
the sound.
I heard the beep-beep
garbage truck backing up
in the night -- that's new too.
yesterday I spun my arms
over my head and they cracked
like kindling twigs going into
a campfire,
a hypnotizing campfire dying
down after all the stories are told
stories of truth stranger than
fiction -- of the 2020 plague
when everything changed.
dirty kids in the mountains
cutting up, teasing, keeping
it light -- if you need to cry
walk away into the blackness
but come back to hear the
punchline about the gone
old man using a Depends
for a face mask walking
down the beach screaming
at spring breakers, screaming
a warning into the breakers
drowned out by the crash
drowned, later, in another
way -- silly chump. 

June 24, 2020

The Quarantine Chronicles, Day 71

DAY 71: -- There's a pandemic.
-- Doctor, how can I help?
-- Stay at home.
-- Okay, but can't I do something else?
-- Stay at home.
-- Yeah, but I'm bored and unhappy.
-- Stay at home.
-- The government said I could go out.
-- Stay at home.
-- But the economy.
-- Stay at home.
-- I hate you doctors, I don't believe you, I'm going out.
-- See you soon.

My fellow citizens, survivors, we are gathered here today to honor the parents, children, friends and neighbors we lost to COVID-19 by reading all the names of the victims of this terrible pandemic. Several famous actors, survivors, have agreed to participate in the reading. Ready? Begin.

After COVID-19
we went back to
business as usual
but after the awful
COVID-20 everything
changed: the environment,
the economy. Then came
COVID-21 with almost
nobody left.
COVID-22
did the rest.

June 23, 2020

The Quarantine Chronicles, Day 70

DAY 70: I stand on the beach alone
looking at the sea, I am alone
and always will be, with the waves
that rise and break one after
another, I stand there forever
and I see waves come and go
quickly, tides come in and out
slowly, waves and tides and me.

Walking from the bathroom to the
kitchen I'll be fine then sigh
because I'm not fine I'm suppressing
I'll have another moment at
my desk furious with the
incompetent government killing
so many good souls, I'll be
sad all day at what I know.

Thank you nurses, I love you.
I'm hopeful, hopeless, hopeless-
ness full. I'm watching dogs on TV
and I start to shake, I get
up at night and sit in the
dark living room wide awake.
I'm okay, I'm okay
I'm not okay
how can I be okay --
270,000 corpses piled so high
they block the sun
I'll never be okay.
I hope.

June 22, 2020

The Quarantine Chronicles, Day 69

DAY 69: Noble Knights and Honorable
Miladys, you are called to a mission
of great personal sacrifice for the good
of the kingdom, your families, your
fellow subjects. That mission is to march
into combat, to fight perhaps to die,
to beat the enemy and restore
order and peace. You are our
champions, you can save us all
if you will, you can be heroes
-- do you accept the challenge?!
CHEERS, swords lifted
Yes, My Lord! We will do whatever
you command, whatever it takes!
Very well, look at this map I'm rolling
out on the table. Faithful John,
you are positioned here -- but that's
my house -- yes, and Maid Marion
you here -- that's my house -- and
Big Ben you here keep careful guard --
my house, I knew it -- and the
rest of you, the same # hash tag
(what?) # hashtag Stayathome.

Oh, wait a second, no way, I need a hair-
cut. I want some donuts. I gotta
see my friends. I'm going to the
beach. I don't care about any
saving humanity mission -- SIRE, I
WILL NOT BE INCONVENIENCED!!!

June 21, 2020

The Quarantine Chronicles, Day 68

DAY 68: Hey kid, why are you crying?
Why why do you cry?
60,000 dead and rising.
That's a big number, but they
were mostly old and weak, weren't 
they? Did you know any of them?
I knew them all, all 250,000 --
nationality don't count --
I knew them, so I cry, but I
got a question for you, mister.
Shoot, girly.
Why are you not crying? What
are you waiting for? A pandemic's
not big enough, bad enough, sad 
enough? How can you talk about 
numbers, about reopening -- the show 
must go on, is that it? You know
you need to stop, sit in silence, remember
cry for the dead and sick in pain
cry for each one, observe 
a moment of silence for 
each sweet worthy person,
as you say, per head (head count), 
equals how long, smart guy?
by the way, where is your heart?
where are the flags at half-mast?
where is the black crepe, the black armbands?
where are our leaders on their knees?
when does the whole human race
start to grieve, mourn, tear our
clothes and not let go? --
refuse to let go of even
one of us, carried away in
the flash flood,
the flash flood of tears.

June 20, 2020

The Quarantine Chronicles, Day 67

DAY 67: Or, let's play another game
it's a math game too, I know you
like math, who doesn't? The percentage
game: 50% 10% 95% and so on
like if there were a 50% chance of dying
would you do it? what? doesn't
matter, I'm explaining the game.

Go back to your job but there's
a 10% chance of getting the virus
would you? with a 5% chance
of dying? would you send your
kids to school with a 75% chance
they'd be infected, hospitalized
possibly cremated before you could
even say goodbye, no last "I love you, kid"?

-- that seems a bit high
-- oh, it's wrong, it's 7.5%, is that okay now?
-- better
-- would you change your answer?

where's the cut off, the cap
where's the curve go down, up
round the bend, loop-the-loop, what 
about that little number 1%?
1% infected, sick, some dead
is that acceptable?
that's 3.4 million Americans
you know, you will know a lot
of them, if you're not one --
Hey, TV Doctor Strange, is that 
a tolerable percentage?

I know some other doctors, real ones
who are giving 110%
and they'd be in that number
when the saints go ...

June 19, 2020

The Quarantine Chronicles, Day 66

DAY 66: I said to someone yesterday
just because the authorities say you
can go out doesn't mean
you have to and they looked at me
like I had lost my f-ing mind
they said, "have you lost your f-ing
mind?" As soon as the ribbon drops
the marathon begins and we all,
free for all, run in all directions
free finally to play on the fourth day
of May or the seventh or eleventh
-- read the authorization ordinance
for more details -- we're opening the bars
under the stars
everyone rush out to reinfect
redirect your germ effect
on a curve, a slope, a spike
your life, on a graph, look at that,
more death, or less, I guess, it's safe
to leave the home place, run
run to meet your fate
run your fate to meet
through fields of wildflowers
even with bad allergies
and bad feet.
Worth it. Deny the truth --
we stayed in, it worked
stay in more, work more
go out, bad idea, could bring in
the hearse -- in any case,
I say this, mate -- you go first.