In the Streets

The viruses had first and last names
Until there were too many to count
We grafted masks onto their faces

And by that point, what did names
Matter? We locked them in boxes
Sealed within larger boxes

Built in ten days, but still
They leaked out into the streets
Bumping randomly into people

Who could not see. Watch for them
We whispered, but to us they all looked
The same. We practiced saying plague

A fun word, not knowing the other ways
We are doomed. We stalked the side alleys
With déjà vu, feeling we'd done this

Before, back in another lifetime-spying
On neighbors, reporting family
Misery enforced as baseline

In a way, we are all the same disease
To survive humans, you have to give up
Humanity-so says the tyrant within

Our lungs cracked like sheet ice. Breath
Whistled through our veins like steam. We searched
For sickness, but there was only sharpness, like guilt