The Virus Spreads

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The virus spreads 

through inhalation 

and aspiration... 

we wear flimsy 

blue paper masks

to cover our mouths,

but the virus spreads

freely and unseen,

in shopping malls,

on buses and in subways -

empty seats still warm 

from another body.

It spreads 

in the cracks of crumbling walls 

of derelict buildings,

and in antiseptic boardrooms 

of glass office towers,

it creeps and suddenly appears

cryptic as the spray paint

on underpasses.

The virus spreads 

online and offline,

it spreads between lines 

of publicly-funded 

poetry journals  

that no one reads,

and in classrooms

like an identity crisis

like a piety

like self-righteousness.

The virus spreads -  

changes normal people

into rabid zombies,

raving street-mutterers,

mouth-foaming flag-wavers

chanting dogma 

in wretched syllables, 

delirious dialects

of catchy slang

rhyming bloody murder.

The cable news shows 

take sides; 

The expert panels 

confuse;

The audience 

buries its head

as the virus spreads

like a conspiracy.