you’re drowning in the news (covid-19)

You’re drowning in the news

It sucks you in, like

quicksand

but you chose it

 

maybe

This piece of you was already here

Waiting, underneath the surface

 

the part of you that knows

the earth is dying, humans

are already dying

 

It jumps at the opportunity to scream apocalypse

Order an emergency kit

Order food for thirty days

 

Just in case, you say. Just in case

 

but if you really needed it, all

would already be lost

 

A caged lion

The feeling leaps at the drip

feed of poison

Thinking it’s food

It’ll keep itself alive

 

Every hour of every day

Breaking, breaking

Important information you

Must know

To prevent dying

 

But we are all dying

 

Headlines crash your body

Up

Down

Up 

Down

Up 

Down 

Up 

Down up down up down up down

 

You can’t turn it off, because then you wouldn’t

Know.

 

And knowing is not safer, but you 

can pretend it is

 

Since maybe it is the first time you are getting a glimpse of your insignificance

How vulnerable, you are

you don’t know how to grow your own food

Can’t catch or skin an animal

Can’t provide for yourself at all

 

You can panic, at this

or you can realize you’ve already known

This is how it’s been all along

the year was never protected

 

If you turn it off

 

If you turn it off, and notice how your world becomes quieter

maybe you will see your friends, after all

maybe we will be a community

Maybe you will wash your hands more

than before

Maybe you will still hug your friends, because human touch

boosts your immune system

 

Maybe you will notice how the dripping

Of panic

into your brain all day long

Was not serving a purpose at all

 

Maybe you will notice how you are at the mercy

of the systems

corporations

Governments

… as always

 

Maybe you will notice how you are okay

 

I wonder, if it happened

The way your panic says it could

If humans would band together, or if we’d

destroy

riot

attack

 

We’ve survived throughout history

because of the way we come together

because of cooperation

 

Rationality

is the gift that comes out of quiet

is the gift that comes out of an overarching 

perspective 

 

You choose how you respond

that is the medicine 

 

Turn off your drip feed

 

You don’t need it

 

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