To breathe and to live

I can't breathe
Because I wear this mask
Not to protect me but you
In case the virus I have

Yet, I can't breathe
Because the mask you despise

I can't breathe
Because you come to me maskless
And talk to me you want
Exhale on me you desire
Laugh with me you hope

So I can’t breathe
Because your breathing is an attack on me

I can’t breathe
Because you don’t care a hoot
Or give a damn
About me or anyone else

That’s why you go about without a mask
And your brother wears his mask on his chin
Making me wonder if he sees the mask as talisman
Simply to wade off the virus
Or simply as visa for freedom of movement

I can’t even breathe
Because some don’t even believe the virus exists
Or is virulent
Or is in them
Or could be in them

So I can’t breathe because I fear for their disbelief
And the effect on us all

I can’t breathe also
Because the authorities struggle
To manage the pandemic
And the social dislocation
While preaching isolation

I can’t breathe when I see the numbers
Each night before I sleep
Because they keep looking like speedometer recording
The mileage keeps going up, never down
And the nations and states are in mad competition
To outnumber the other with new figures each day

I couldn’t breathe either
When some authorities sneered at reality
And ran their territories aground
While we saw underground figures of inexplicable deaths

The unresolved and recurring bouts of malaria
And of cough and catarrh mattered little
Even the loss of smell and tastelessness they explained away
It’s the weather and season, they lied

I can’t breathe
Because we haven’t done enough
Or know what to do

I can’t breathe
Because we just want to let the children go out
And get that examination written
And make the scores
And transit to the next class

I can’t breathe
Because we just want to re-open and live again

But when all these come to pass
Would we have our lives back
And continue where we left off
And where would the vulnerable ones be?

But for now, just keep your distance
And let me have my space
So I can breathe again
And live.

And live.