Mutation and Adaptation

The pandemic will last forever
find new ways to get worse
like a marriage that starts with paper cuts
and graduates to black eyes

We are deeper in the well than we think
we’re where white fish swim
their blue eyes staring in the murk
while we cling to the mossy wall

We try to make the fish our friends
but they are foreign and cold
and we have nothing to offer them
except data about the efficacy of booster shots

The pandemic will last forever
there is nothing here that is temporary
the white fish swim in circles
in filtered tanks in our living rooms

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Photo by Kai Oberhäuser on Unsplash