Shall I compare thee? (Covid-19)

Poems in the time of Corona

Shall I compare thee? (Covid-19)
after William Shakespeare (Sonnet 18)
on the (probable) anniversary of his birth and death

Shall I compare thee to the Spanish flu?
Art thou more deadly and more disparate?
Tough minds do chart your likely spread in June,
And isolation's end hath long to wait;
Some said in heat Corona would be gone,
And your rank visage would in summer die,
A miracle, gold crowns burn'd in the sun,
With nature back to normal by and by;
But promise in the season had to fade,
Losing the halt of quarantine at hand;
Now we do shelter longer in the shade,
While contact under six feet's sadly bann'd:
   So long as breath can poison we must see,
   Such sacrifice of freedom sets us free.



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