A gruel mean and thin

Before the Beginning

A gruel mean and thin©

George G. Epp

-With much thanks to Sara Teasdale

Covid came and stole my hope

For heady days of bread and wine

And gave me in exchange

A gruel mean and thin.

Like saltiness without relief

Each day a copy of the one just passed

And night-time visions of that sticky thing

The devil in the fashion of a crown

Haunting the sleepless treacle of the dark

The dread of morning news, the charts

Of mounting numbers of the sick and dead

Sunk lonely each into abysmal night.

What demon made this tiny, sticky sphere

That floats unseen upon the very breath

What god would hide his pity from the sight

Of elders gripped in sad and lonely death

                             Ὼ

The Armageddon vulture folds its wings

Claws clinging to a rotting rusty tower

Blank eyes survey the desolated paths below . . .

Then blink, he thinks of

Dinosaurs’ and Dodos’ brief and mournful hour.

“Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree
If mankind perished utterly . . .”

Covid came and stole my hope

For heady days of bread and wine

And gave me in exchange

A gruel mean and thin.