Coronavirus, COVID-19
Sars2
the “Wu Flu”
Patient Zero
who are you?
where are you?
and how did you
catch the monster?

Did you
catch it from a bat?
a civet cat?
from a lab? A scab?
from barbecued rats at a wet market?

PERHAPS A PANDA OR A PANGOLIN?

Do you know?
that YOU are
the ultimate super-spreader
did you know?
that it was from your breath
your blood
your touch
your spit
that ALL THIS
is history

ALL THIS...

TELL US
let the record show...

WHAT DID YOU KNOW
AND WHEN DID YOU KNOW IT?

TELL ME
... DID YOU SEE?
the grim reaper on a respirator!?

DID YOU KNOW?
do you know?
ARE YOU ALIVE?
did you die?
are you in a Chinese jail?
chained to a wall?
or in the cotton fields
with Uighurs in chains
or toiling in Tibet...
or dead as the Falun Gong,
or dead as Hong Kong...
or are you in a padded room
GOING INSANE

Or are you in heaven with Doctor Li?
or crawling in a cave, in Yunnan

or are you wearing pants?

Are you in France?

And is your name really Huang Yanling?

Or were you
a pensioner seeking scraps
an accountant of maps?
a seller of bats?
an eater of cats?
a user of WeChat?
or another worker
at the Wuhan Institute of Virology
dropping beakers like babies...
or was your hand
bitten by humanized mice?

And
are
you
nice?

WHO ARE YOU?
are you a Chad or Karen?
WHERE ARE YOU?
are you in a kitchen?
chopping chicken?
listening to K-Pop, nonstop,
or are you still mad about THAAD?
are you in Wuhan or Hebei?
are you in Spain?
are you in pain?
or are you in a shopping mall?
are you laughing?
did you have a diagnosis?
and pray tell us all:
Where did YOU spend YOUR quarantine?

DID YOU HEAR? SMELL? SEE?
the genesis?
And HOW WOULD YOU FEEL?
if you KNEW, for sure,
that you, from your hands
from your belly
from your vowels
FROM YOUR MOLECULES
lashed the droplets
brought the blood
birthed the seed
of the beast in its crown
That weighed so heavily on humanity’s head...