Quarantine

                                                                         

Detail of The Triumph of Death by Bruegel the Elder ( 1526-1569

Quarantine

 And so, you sit in your armchair,

Every poor man’s throne, and look around you

Like some mellow Lear with death,

And pandemic, reportedly, all around you.

Cool heads prevail, but don’t speak of breathing!

Just inhale, slowly, and look around you.

Reflect upon the kind of creature that you have become,

See what trophies adorn your shelves and walls.

No boar heads nor deer here, no dead animals

Of any kind, just a solitary wall of books,

Containing the lives of the great dead.

It stands like a monument to human history.

When you look you see only a tide of crimson,

With a skeleton entombed in every volume.