Keep washing until hope shines through

I feel I’m living through the pages cut
From the first printing of the Book of Job
(The God-approved edition)
It was some segment about the threat
Of end of days or evolution of species

I feel I’ve been given the job
Of finding where to punctuate
A run-on sentence heading for the final period
At a time when all pens,
Pencils & cursors have vanished

This is Y2K twenty years late
This is Eve of Destruction
Sung in 1965, now with new lyrics
Words shed meanings like serpent skins
The isolated become the online observant

A holiday repast garnished with ancient plagues
It’s time for the quintessential Passover
Staying in place, separate screens, separate meals
Surrounded by love and bitter herbs
Remembering the Last Supper was a seder

The youngest asks the Four Questions
Why is this happening?
When will this end?
Have we enough supplies?
How will the world rebuild?

Daniel Defoe wrote about one
Albert Camus wrote about one
Geraldine Brooks wrote about one
A plague
They made you feel you were right in it
And now you truly are

Brought to you not by Disney or Universal
But more likely by deaf ears of the forsaken
Those not hearing what’s in the winds of climate change,
What’s in the waters of ignorance,
What’s in the fires of indulgence,
What’s in the earth of indifference

A line’s been crossed – anti-social behavior
We’re now living in and hopefully through
What in high school we called a sick joke

Keep washing, masking, gloving, loving
How Biblical can it get?