Chen-ou Liu's Translation Project: First English-Chinese Haiku and Tanka Blog

Sunday, May 1, 2022

Fatigue Haiku

Three Hundred and Thirty-Fourth Entry,  Coronavirus Poetry Diary

spring snow-covered branches ...
on Zoom my doctor's words sag
with fatigue



Added: Three Hundred and Thirty-Fifth Entry

drifting mist ...
during the pandemic
Sunday just a day

FYI: "Not Just Nostalgia: Some Pandemic-Weary Souls Want To Make Sunday A Day Of Rest Again," Bobby Ross Jr., Religion Unplugged, Feb.11, 2022

In a hit song two decades ago, country music group Rascal Flatts offered banjo-tinged commentary on “the world spinning faster than it did in the old days.”

“Sunday was a day of rest,” the group proclaimed in its ode to a bygone era. “Now, it’s one more day for progress.”


Added: Three Hundred and Thirty-Sixth Entry

as if we were alright
with this pandemic life ...
flowers in a crack


Added: Three Hundred and Thirty-Seventh Entry

starlings shape-shift
in the darkening sky ...
more new variants

FYI: Deadline: May 1: New South African Covid Variants, Omicron BA.4 And BA.5, Found In U.S. For First Time; May Be More Transmissible Than BA.2 And The Week Magazine, April 30: Acceptable casualties

Virologists and epidemiologists warn that we are likely in another lull in the pandemic, not at the end. Studies clearly show that immunity from vaccines and prior infection wanes over time, so the shape-shifting virus may return to infect people again and again, unless we keep boosting. We have the weapons to keep this virus under control, but lack the social cohesion to follow a coherent national strategy. Freedom is just another word for "you're on your own."