Veronica Pamoukaghlian Viera's contribution to our Call for Poems on the topic of epidemics, illness, medicine, death and healing

Veronica Pamoukaghlian Viera of Montivideo, Urugay, has shared her original poem. APP thanks her.


QUARANTINE DÉCIMAS


They call her the bat woman
because she roams the caves
around Yunnan, enslaves
the host of plagues inhuman
predators of lumen
Vampire beast nightflyer
shadowy silent viper
bears a deadly message
perchance a presage
we can´t yet decipher


In the saliva of bats
is the secret of survival
antibodied rival
food of civet cats
home of alar rats
the stalagmite porn
of caverns forlorn
bred a karmic hearse
its unwitting curse
threatens the unborn


Tall wine glasses glitter
empty and detached
All delights untouched
No venomous spitter
Sweet nectars taste bitter
when no glass is raised
Cursed mirror gaze
gone the otherness
This new loneliness
is a selfhood maze


And if we are spared
if we do emerge
intact from the purge
what will we have learned
from this hell we earned
With our havens stormed
will we be transformed
find brothers in fiends?
Useless quarantine
No hell makes hearts warm


Only food and shelter
no cars dresses islands
no breathtaking skylines
Urban helter skelter
No novelty sellers
No selfies at Trevi
No Likes from our bevy
No mirrors or fountains
No rivers or mountains
We didn’t need much
Only human touch

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APP would like to thank Veronica Pamoukaghlian Vieira for her contribution. Her website is VeronicaPamoukaghlian.com