Decease by Disease

 

Decease by Disease

(Corona Poem V)

      From the days of yellow fever

      in Buenos Aires, 1871

      To victims of COVID-19, 2020

Fatality of yellow fever takes full foreground

of painting—a woman slain by disease

as if hit by a thunderbolt

child's still shaking her body

for animated response

While adults have given up hope

raising their hat as a sad farewell

or looking down to avoid despair

of too great a grievance of death.

Xanadu (Ofvallejofame) 

                for Blogspot.Com (October 2020)

(Thanks to Juan Manuel Blanes ca 1871 'Un episodio 

de la fiebre amarilla en Buenos Aires' and  

MNAV Montevideo)