Poems in a Time of Covid-19 Read the following two (2) poems, and write
a 300-4
Poems in a Time of Covid-19Read the following two (2) poems, and write a 300-400 word
response to them.They are written at different times in history, but they share many of the
same sentiments.Some ideas for your response: What do the poems have to say about loss,
love, and fear?Do any of the experiences in the poems resonate with you? (Identify which
ones.)Did you have experiences like those described by Angelo Geter?How far do you think
the speaker of Love in the Time of Covid-19 will go for his love?Do you take this
literally?What have you lost in the pandemic?What do you most miss?Has the world gone
back to the way it was for you?Imagine reading the Dunbar poem in February 2020.How
does your experience of the pandemic affect the way you read the Dunbar poem?Would you
have read it differently before the pandemic as you do now?After submitting your response,
go immediately to the Discussion Forum and post a copy of your response there.“When the
Virus Comes” by Angelo GeterWhen the virus comes,Talking heads on television screenswill
tell you to abandon ship.To drown yourself in a sea of isolation.Submerge homes in lysol
wipes and hand sanitizer.Engulf body in face mask and plastic gloveuntil it becomes second
nature.They will tell you to turn your kitchen into a panic room,basement into fallout
shelter.Instruct you to grab everything you can,while you still can.They will saythe shelves
at the stores are empty,and not realize they are also talking about you.They will preach
from the gospel of quarantine.Shout parables of“Thou Shalt wash thine hands.”“For God so
loved the worldhe socially distanced himselffrom the very people he wanted to save.”It will
make you wonder how a heroor a governmentCan rescue someone they can’t even
touch.When the virus comes,you will kiss your lover like it’s the last time,because maybe it
is.You will dance on timelineslike decades are stuck on the balls of your feet.Sing like a
quartet is trapped in your throat.Laugh like this is the last time you know what joy feels
like,because maybe it is.And today that will be more than enough.from The Post and
Courier. Copyright © 2020 by Angelo Geter. Used with the permission of the
author.“Yesterday and Tomorrow” by Paul Laurence DunbarYesterday I held your
hand,Reverently I pressed it,And its gentle yieldingnessFrom my soul I blessed it.But to-day
I sit alone,Sad and sore repining;Must our gold forever knowFlames for the
refining?Yesterday I walked with you,Could a day be sweeter?Life was all a lyric songSet to
tricksy meter.Ah, to-day is like a dirge,—Place my arms around you,Let me feel the same
dear joyAs when first I found you.Let me once retrace my steps,From these roads

unpleasant,Let my heart and mind and soulAll ignore the present.Yesterday the iron
searedAnd to-day means sorrow.Pause, my soul, arise, arise,Look where gleams the
morrow.Love in a Time of Covid-19 by Craig Santos PerezI don’t love you as if you were
penicillin,insulin, or chemotherapy drugs that treat cancer,I love you as one loves the
sickest patient:terminally, between the diagnosis and the death.I love you as one loves new
vaccines frozenwithin the lab, poised to stimulate our antibodies,and thanks to your love,
the immunity that protectsme from disease will respond strongly in my cells.I love you
without knowing how or when this pandemicwill end. I love you carefully, with double
masking.I love you like this because we can’t quarantineforever in the shelter of social
distancing,so close that your viral load is mine,so close that your curve rises with my cough.