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May 5, 2020

The Quarantine Chronicles, Day 21

DAY 21: It's times like these, times
like these when you find out
who your friends are -- you
cheated back then, didn't pay your
debts and now you ask for another
loan? -- the nerve, we're dying here --
it was a joke after the election,
gravity to emphasize in irony
-- we're all gonna die --
Trump, that is, will kill us all
three years later he's started, he
thinks it's Gramma but it's his
mistress / daughter / self
who can't stop coughing and will soon drown,
it's times like these -- who will
rise to the occasion, who will
collapse in tears on live TV
who will try to beat their neigh-
bors and who will sit still
while the house burns down:
all the chickens and rabbits die
the children's toys melt and
silver picture frames go black
-- you sing "Murder Most
Foul" so as not to hear the 
screams of the exponential
the exponential young people exposed
the exponential old people bound home
the exponential in silent cities who
have no hope
to breathe free, among friends
friends, where are you now?