By Peggy Morrison

In this country, we live in an ironclad cultural box
cast iron thick and immobile
individualistic/tragically separate/competitive
We can't find our way to simple collective action
for the common good
in the most fundamental, easy to understand moment,
when it is life and death, a plague, a biological, physical
plague that threatens our communal existence,
it is impossible for us to sense
ourselves as collective beings
to take the simple collective act of self-preservation
of wearing masks against the plague
It's inconceivable for us in this cast iron
brother against brother agression
this nation beyond the pale
extremists on the edge of human experience
exceptionalism is the bullshit
we're eating and spewing
in lieu of simple common sense

June 24, 2020