The Year of Denial

We're savoring this year's unseasonably warm winter
Setting aside what we know about the missing coldness
Sloughing off our inclement gear without care
About pneumonia weather warnings, or buttoning
That top button to ward away the deathly chill
No melted mutton suet, rosin, or beeswax paste
Spread on a cloth and pinned on from ear to ear
Or a spiked hot toddy to sooth sore throats
No caution or care for the dangers obscured
Little concern for the freezing chill demurred
Only the abandon of captives released from bounds
Embracing the sanguine air as if bad weather lay slain.

We reveled in the relaxed virus restrictions
Ignoring what we know about its spread
Sloughing off our protective gear without care
About asymptomatic transmission or breakthrough
Infections which sneak into vaccinated folks
Roiling Regeneron's monoclonal antibody treatments
Exploiting the elderly and medically vulnerable
In its bid to outlast our nation's resolve against it
Appearing almost balmy in its deadly influence
Making us comfortable and cocky about our herd's
Ability to shield us from its inevitable return
As if our denial was, in itself, our panacea.


__Ron