The Plague Diaries and the Annals of the New Utopia (IFT)

[Sorry]

SmilingbackatyouBrian! Happy to be NaPoeming with you once again. Have fun! Sorry

[BrianIsSmilingAtYou]

I created a new NaPoWriMo 2020 in Google Photos, and I am testing to see if people can see images linked from there. Otherwise, I may have to use the generic shared folder that I have.

Let me know if you can see this.



BrianIs AtYou

[Sorella]

Can't

[BrianIsSmilingAtYou]

How about now? I tweaked the sharing settings.



BrianIs AtYou

[merelynn]

For your plague/new utopia soundtrack:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxT_H9j-UV4

Cheers!

[Dunc]

Hi Brian

I can see both of your images, but that may be because you'd already tweaked them.

A great April to you!

Regards / Dunc

[BrianIsSmilingAtYou]

The Secret Language (向日葵) (from the Annals of the New Utopia)



Sunflowers that bloom
in Hokkaido
are called "himawari"
in Japanese.

The sunflower inside you
also has a name.
Have you gazed on that flower?
Have you learned

its secret language?

---

BrianIs AtYou

------------------------------------------------------
(Revised version)

Sunflowers bloom
in Hokkaido—
“himawari”
in Japanese.

The sunflower inside you
also has a name.
Have you gazed on that flower?
Have you learned

its secret language?

[shaula]

Wonderful start, Brian.

[BrianIsSmilingAtYou]

I. Naïve



The Plague Days did not start
in the ordinary way.
There was no eclipse—no comet
reigning in the sky.
No one had read my palm,
or checked the bumps on my head,
as in the olden days—
we have brand new charlatans
in The Plague Days,
spreading brand new, modern lies—
you know the drill.

It was a Friday, a month or more ago,
when I first had intimations
that something was terribly wrong.
I was rushing up to Mom's,
and, in my haste, I forgot
my laptop, my iPhone charger,
and more—
you know the drill.
 
The Dow was tanking—not to mention
the S&P—so much so, in fact,
that it would soon become
Standard to be Poor,
except for Senators with inside information
on coronavirus.
You know the drill.

Amid the sober reports of sick and dead—
and how best to avoid either
with social distancing—
we saw folks, like disgraced televangelist
Jim Bakker, hawking colloidal silver,
and others posting nonsense
about radio waves, radar, and 5G,
putting people at risk
with dubious claims and misinformation.
You know the drill.

Others took a more direct approach—
an NBA player, Rudy Gobert, of the Utah Jazz,
touched every mic at a news conference
before testing positive. And then his whole team
was tested, and other teams.
The Utah Jazz, stuck in Oklahoma,
used up more than half the entire supply
of daily test kits in the state.
You know the drill.

In the side margin, years later,
when the New Utopia is in full bloom, I write,
“How naïve we were.
In the days to come, our daily dose of lies
and confusion doubled—then tripled—
and we kept asking—pleading—
for more reasons to ignore the evidence.
Now, the time before seems like another era,
and I try to remember if the films they had
were talkies—they couldn’t be, could they?—
the meme archives are all captioned—
even the ones with cats.”
You know the drill.

---

BrianIs AtYou

[prokopton]

Strong start Brian,
chronicling the demise of the Empire
in situ, no less!
Be Brave. Stay calm. Wait for the signs.


G.

[5th column]

Y’know, I was kinda meh, at the beginning but by the end (other than I think this will only serve to cement disparity between wealthy and not so), you were hitting the nails on the head with force. The repetition is like the sound of the proverbial drill. Which brings to mind the phrase “Is it safe?”

[Jee Leong]

The refrain is a very effective tragic chorus.

[lauriene]

It's a very inspiring time in history for poets. I really enjoyed this engaging piece.

(still can't believe that people's surivival skills told them to hoard toilet paper!)

Great first!

[Gabrielle]

Great voice and style. I particularly liked the last 6 lines. Great illustration of the weirdness of the times.

[Mimic_Octopus]

Happy NaPoWriMo, Brian! I like your dystopia-or-bust approach!