Scars of History

Let me tell you a story.
The story of Richard Reid.
Who was Richard Reid exactly?
He was a man. A man that
tried to blow up his shoes.
He failed, but his effort
had lasting consequences.
The C4 stuffed in his shoes
turned out to be a dud.
Perhaps from nervous sweat
or an unexpected flight delay,
but either way, he failed.
And to this day whenever
you go to an airport
your shoes you must remove.

Now let’s shift our gaze to modern days.
Approaching 50,000 deaths.
Hospitals prioritizing who to treat.
Mass graves found on satellite images.
Field hospitals in Central Park.
Overflowing morgues in the land of Armani.
The most promising predictions, cataclysmic.
Economists debating black swans
and gray rhinos while
the death toll climbs ever higher.
Neighbors fearing neighbors
on the edge of McCarthy era violence.
Do unto others
before they can
do unto you.
Who’s an infected?
Others.
Those already marginalized.
Seismic shift hitting
the fan.
And we think
we can set
an end date
when the society we built
is more likely to
expire.