The Quarantine Chronicles, Day 78

DAY 78: Numb to the Numbers

number and number we read/hear

60 70 80, 1 million 2 3 4, who cares?

if we're brave and not caught

up in a web of words, games, jokes

and desires all in a doomed

attempt at pathetic escapism

then we listen/read the numbers

and the tragic stories of death

and pain behind them and even

then, even then, we cannot hold

in our small brains all those

numbers -- like the poor who

follow the rich, she's a millionaire

he's a billionaire, they're trillionaires

-- what does that mean when you're

making minimum wage and

shopping at FoodMaxx to save

50 cents per can of tunafish --

it's all nonsense, too out there.

now some people today are

taking advantage of the new

(premature I say) loosening

of restrictions to go out and

smell the flowers out there

but me, I'm not a guinea pig

for government researchers only

interested in numbers, I'm

staying in because: I am not

a number; I am a free man.

Free, but increasingly numb.