I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I’m freaked out that I’m not more freaked out. Half-mast flags mar the scene from my hospital bed. One hundred thousand dead approaching past caged brown babies, half-constructed walls, and simple condonation of grabbing by the – insert presidential term for female here. It’s the millionth day of May and I wish Fauci could unmask our cure, use wizardry to make COVID magically disappear. Although, I’ve learned buried festering never dies and how to see red flags. America’s sickness lingers like zombie fires beneath Arctic ice, nicknamed by scientists because a premature melt gives them breath again. My sutured breast seeps orange while infectious disease doctors wait for germs to grow in cultures. Never occurred to me before 2016 that America might not break free of tyranny, shed her past. Another knee to neck. Instead of disinfectant injections for spongy lungs, how about a scrub-free brain cleanser to expunge these past three years? Gods divided under a Fox News Nation. I believe the zombie apocalypse already occurred and we survivors are screwed. What can you do? Sometimes justice is an endless search of blur while they come at you in a slow, stupid lumber with dead, dead eyes – crumbling arms outreached as if in embrace. Like on that show The Walking Dead, I don’t want to believe She’ll turn, but everything tells me that’s what happens when She’s dead. © Kim Drew Wright 2020
Bio:
Kim Drew Wright lives in North Chesterfield, Virginia. She is a wife, mother, and social activist who founded Liberal Women of Chesterfield County & Beyond. She is a recent breast cancer survivor and fights for awareness and medical advancement for children with PANS – Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome.
Donation Appeal:
Throughout June and July, we will be presenting on this web site work by poets and artists responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. We hope you will find these works relevant, comforting and inspiring as we all cope with the economic and health-related fallout.
As you view the work on this site each day, we would like to encourage you to donate to the Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC). Their mission “ is to feed our neighbors in need by providing dignified access to supplemental groceries. AFAC is seeing a record number of families due to the COVID-19 pandemic as families who never thought they would ever be in need are now showing up at our doors for much needed food.” And, in keeping with our hunger-focused efforts, you may also want to visit the Poetry X Hunger website where poems by many poets are posted and are being used by anti-hunger organizations.”
Throughout June and July, we will be presenting on this web site work by poets and artists responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. We hope you will find these works relevant, comforting and inspiring as we all cope with the economic and health-related fallout.
Please consider donating to AFAC. If you do, let us know which poet or artist inspired you so we can send you a personal thank you.
