I Am COVID-19

I am COVID 19. Healer disguised as sickness.

Your ancestors knew me as my previous incarnations: The Spanish Flu. The Black Death. Plagues of old. There are dangers but there are also opportunities. Crises and breakthroughs.

A peace washes over the streets as traffic, both foot and mechanical, come to a halt. People remain in their homes, craving comfort, human contact, laughter, touch. I am both destroyer and savior of humanity. I am the common enemy that unites your cause. For love. For Kinship.

I am COVID19. Your mother, your father, brother, friend, enemy, stranger. I am everything you crave and nothing you desire. I am your teacher, hear my lesson. Die with dignity or live with compassion if you can. Be prepared to learn what it means to be human.

Listen to the silence in the bedroom unless you’ve taken a quarantine lover. Do you dare? Would you? Could you take such a risk? You’ve made worse decisions: relationships with an unstable partner. Driving after three martinis. Eating food from a roadside stand in Oaxaca, Mexico that hadn’t been refrigerated in 100 degree heat. Using a truck stop bathroom. Letting a stranger into your car because you didn’t want to be perceived as mean. Voting against your own interests. Yes child, you’ve made poor decisions. Let’s think about that while surrounded by those 4 walls that you think will keep me from you.

I am COVID19 and there is nothing you can do to avoid this confrontation. Walls, mountains, borders, money- they will not stop me.

What will you say when we come face to face? Will you try to fight? Run? Hide? Too late. I am everywhere. No one will ignore me. Poor, rich, citizen, leader, black, white, American, Chinese, straight or gay. I do not have the capacity to discriminate. I am pure.

I am COVID-19, destructor of ignorance, disintegrator of fascists and science bashers, deliverer of boredom and dilettante of poor mental hygiene. I come to you at all hours to interrupt your normal life. Learn to embrace your worst fears and a new reality. Don't run. I am COVID19 and I will find you.