COVID-19, Day 282

 


Dawson's Lament

 

Words: Itzhik Manger                                                                       Music: Philip Laskovski (Oyfn veg sheht a boym)

 

Tell me now, Mother Dear

Why you’re always crying

When you think of the year

Of despair and dying

When the plague hit the land

Like a blazing fire

Causing frenzy, causing panic—

Everything turned dire

Then my Grandpa stayed in bed

Coughing and in anguish

When the plague took him away

Oh, did Grandma languish!

Till the plague took Grandma too,

With much of the family

No one came to comfort you;

They were quarantined.

 

Then my father lost his job

When the market weakened

I can’t forget your moans and sobs

Praying for a beacon

Dad was angry and dismayed

That he was unable

To pay mortgage, to pay bills

Put food on the table

Childhood years were put on hold

Yes, those times were cruel

There was no playing with my friends

No, not even school

Night and day, I stayed at home

Keeping safe from illness

I was scared and so alone

From such dreary stillness.

 

Cry no more, Mother Dear

Yes, I know you loved them

Though they've gone,  I am here

We’ll get through this mayhem

One day Dad'll work again

Wouldn't that be splendid?

We'll go dining out with friends

When this all has ended

Maybe I'll join Little League

Or I'll go out fishing

Long as I don't stay indoors

This is all I'm wishing

But that time is coming soon

This truth keeps me coping

Tomorrow's sun will be our boon

So let's keep on hoping.

 

 In memory of the more than 300,000 Americans who have perished from COVID-19.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

COVID-19 Lockdown, Day 343

I am glad that more and more people are getting the vaccine. A senior client of mine had just gotten his second shot this week, and he will be fully immune by the middle of March. I have heard that my senior friends and my mother are starting to at least get appointments. On top of this, today's news is that FDA approved a third vaccine--from Johnson & Johnson. This vaccine is a one shot deal; yes, there are no booster shots. Before you celebrate, please keep in mind that this vaccine is only  up to   85% effective. I don't know how this was considered good enough (still better than Astra Zeneca), but I think they should only give this vaccine to young adults in good health. The other two, especially Pfizer, should be given to the older and/or frail populations.  It was announced that the COVID-19 death toll reached 500,000 this week. Is it me, or did the death toll increase by 100,000 people since Biden took office? You tell me. Anyway, I see that only 2 of you ...
Read more

COVID-19 Lockdown, Day 146

Image
  Another rough week. My paternal grandmother, Grandma Margie, has been diagnosed with, you guess it, COVID-19. She is non-symptomatic, and she is in isolation. Guess how I found out about it? From my brother on my father's side--in my Facebook newsfeed. Of course, I started to worry because no one called or texted me to tell me. I sent a message to him, my younger paternal brother, and my paternal sister. I asked them when they heard about Grandma. I also included my old man in the text, wanting to know what her condition was and why no one called me to tell me. As it was late at night, I did not get a response for either of them, but I managed to enhance my calm well enough to go to sleep. When I didn't get a return call in the morning, I called my old man again. (Sidebar, my apologies if the moniker for my father offends you; that's just how I refer to him.) I got ahold of him, and he was very nonchalant about my concern, He said that she was fine, and he said that I wou...
Read more

COVID-19 Lockdown, Day 365

 A whole year; a whole year has passed since I started writing this blog. It has been three days since the one year anniversary of the pandemic. This pandemic caused suffering all around the world, but not as much as it has affected Americans. As of today, 29,920,435 have been diagnosed with COVID-19. That is almost 10% of the population. That means, of ten people with whom you will interact this day, one will have had it or are suffering from it now. Also, the latest death toll is 544,424. Hence, if you have not lost a relative or friend from COVID-19, you know someone who has suffered such loss.  Let us look back a year ago and compare it to last week. First, there were still hate crimes and acts of intolerance against ethno-racial minorities, only the last weeks have seen an increase in racism towards Asians--since they are being accused of bringing the virus to America (even if they were born here and never left).  There was an incidence of our President sli...
Read more