Wheeze

Wheeze

I.

Drenched by a philharmonic of aerosols
First, second, rounding to third world
In contagion that Concordes
Interiors across the Pacific

Squadrons dispersing without distinction
Virile, viral, ambitious, wet
Market extinction splashed
Into the fresh human stew

With feral mischief, stow away
Pharyngitis on Delta 588,
The plane's white noise a cover for
Cushiony creature-comfort lungs.

II.

Made love, designed software,
Played squash, slow at the wall,
Winded in the shower,
Visited mom, she was so happy.

Opening and closing remarks
In dreams about ventilators
Benevolent breathes wheeled in
To boost to 20 percent the odds

Mother will eat, at 102%
Birch Colored, wheezing, cellular
Phone rings: no, mother won't eat,
Birch with dark spots, (all is well).

III.

Sympathetic cloudy breaths with
Coughs in the percussing aisles.
Don't touch, screen all emotions
Selves sag without air, despite (all is well)

Crumbling spots on FDR Dr to the hospital,
A furlough of unknown duration.
Rearrange and stare at your home parapet
That reinforces distance (all is well)

Derisive laughter about delegation to the States,
An emperor imagines that he's a qualified doctor
Another diversion inevitably inviting morbidity
Where America is first in this virtual duality.