Listen by Johanna Bartlett

Johanna Bartlett: I am a retired high school English teacher who lives next to the Wendell State Forest.  I have always written, but not for publication.

Listen

“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.”
— Friedrich Nietzsche

And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.

And those who were seen wearing masks
and staying home
and growing long ragged locks
were thought to be ridiculous by those who were

at the beaches,
rubbing suntan lotion on each other,
coughing on people on the next blanket.

And if you cannot hear the music, does that mean it has been stilled?
If you cannot see the deadly virus, does that mean it is not still pulsing?

Invisible things are no less powerful to those who dismiss them,
No less lethal to those who ignore them.
It merely means the assassin comes from behind.

Listen harder.
Do not be distracted by the music of the Sirens,
cooing and burbling
about a return to a normal that died with a virus.

Listen to that virus.
It is whispering the way powerful people do,
Close, but very dangerous.
Listen, and pull the covers up to your necks.
Stay put, until it passes like a stealth bomber over your heads.

Now can you hear it?