So your baby is sick
with the second vaccine,
waking up to disrupt 
your furious pace 
to get everything done
before you too 
fall prey
to the intentional
ill of fever and chills that
might may 
could
result from your
third 

shot of the same 
as the holidays call you 
by myriad names

To celebrate! 
almost two years of playing 
your part en masse ergo 
sum the human shield 
a helping hand herding 
graphic gradations 
virulent vs. the immune! 
while the mainstream media 
news
debates the 
proper 
pronunciation 

of a letterform! 
more ancient than ours 
proving
just as difficult to
carve in stone
as it was 
before 

our orbit came round 
to these darkest of times, 
the longest of nights!

when lucky are We 
who know that 
sitting and brooding for 
a period of blind

is a tried and true 
preface 

to the 
birth of new light!