Life in Quarantine: Witnessing Global Pandemic is an initiative sponsored by the Poetic Media Lab and the Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis at Stanford University.
Someday
Someday, when all this is over
The glory, the ego, the power
The euphoria of the winning streak
The quiet victorious elation
The arrogant stare and stride
Someday, perhaps someday
It shall dawn on you
That there had been a shadow
Beside you, behind you,
Of yourself, in shadows
lurking, waiting to emerge.
That old self, quiet and composed
That human with compassion
which you cast away
in pursuit of wealth and fame.
And someday fellow humans
You will remember streets
deserted, humans afraid
To hug, suspicious,
Frustrated, helpless
With all that superior knowledge
Waiting in line for everyday
Essentials which you wasted
Otherwise, abandoned animals
because you were selfish.
Someday you will remember
The long line of migrant laborers
Who cleaned your city,
Built your buildings,
Swept the streets, cleaned
The bathrooms, plucked
Your vegetables,
Remember your farmers
Your maids, your cooks,
Your doctors, your police
force who kept vigil
And ate out of banana leaves
Nurses who could not feed
Their children, but kept you safe
Doctors, who slept in cars and
Wards, tired, hungry frustrated.
Someday fellow humans
You will remember to return
To be what you were meant to be
The crown of creation
People with compassion and love
And set the world on its path again.
Someday remember this
It took only a tiny weenie virus
To bring you down
[submitted on 4/27/2021]
Life in Quarantine: Witnessing Global Pandemic is an initiative sponsored by the Poetic Media Lab and the Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis at Stanford University.
Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis (CESTA),
Stanford University
Address:
4th floor, Wallenberg Hall (bldg. 160)
450 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford, CA 94305
Stanford Mail Code: 2055