Dogs 2020

Death Count
(5/1/2020)

I’ve
always loved
numbers

whether
they represented
something significant
or not

lately
I've had
the same
morbid fascination
for the figures
of dead
from this
new virus

watching
the totals
rise

state
by state

county
by county

even
country
by country

seeing it
more
as a contest

than as
true
human loss

I have
always
been detached
from those
similar
beings

what’s
the quote
from the movie
Network?

“indifferent
to suffering

insensitive
to joy”

I can
own that

or be owned
by that

since
I really
don’t care enough
to make an effort
either way

I do
nothing
but observe

evaluate

disassociate
the spiking
graphs

from their
representations
of humanity

from the
pain

from the
fear

from the
tears

so foreign
in my singular
nation
of isolation