The media reports successive spots
where virus graphs condense their dire dots,
as if the plague had patterns like a map
of weather systems turning on the tap,
evoking pollsters analyzing charts
of primaries ascendant in our hearts,
informing us of high-rise crowds who praise
the heroes laboring to save our days.

Specifically, the folks at home would thank
the scholars who insist on being frank,

the nurses who perform without regard
to hazards in a full contagious ward,

the clerks of grocery who sell viands
imperilled by a multitude of hands,

the pickers-up of all we choose to trash
though danger’s likely there to dump and smash,

and too the lifelong bureaucrats, who hear
and tell the truth, truncating each career.
We’re fortune-blessed that we have citizens to cheer.