Our son has asked us
not to talk
about the virus

You can spot the lovers,
they are standing closer than
six feet apart
and they seem less fearful
than the other strangers
you pass in the semi-deserted park.

the house has a solid foundation

but it sits in a liquefaction zone

in an earthquake

It may be swallowed by quicksand

The germ of our undoing 
is the idea that
the germ of our undoing
is some foreign invader
to be contained

Will we have a day, a moment to point to
when the end finally arrived?
a Wednesday afternoon in the Senate
a Thursday night in Parliament
a Tuesday night in November
or was it September
or 1984
or before

I said goodbye to the muse
in a parking garage
on a chilly Thursday night