Omicron - The World Must Fight Back To Survive Poem by Bernedita Rosinha Pinto

How much it agonizes to see and hear
that a new variant is always surfacing and appearing,
waiting to infect people and cause maladies;
somewhere, sometimes people keep getting infected
somewhere, sometimes people keep losing their lives
as many nations still keep facing so many fatalities;
and mass burials have taken the toll in the past
and millions are still getting infected;
as anxiety still surmounts all over the world
without any control or stoppage
where is the value of peaceful existence?

And as Omicron keeps moving like a storm in an ocean,
silently, it is gathering speed and momentum
thus creating lockdowns and global tension
in the minds of the people who sit
with crossed fingers hoping and praying
it will not be more dangerous than those
that have caused so much damage and disharmony
as many have faced the wrath of the corona virus
and every time a new wave
or a new mutant keeps surfacing
it shakes the confidence and trembles the hearts
of those who want to be free and move on with their life;
and the sordid past they have stacked in their memory boxes
as family and friends have either emerged
from their sufferings and hospital beds
or they have lost their lives to an invisible enemy
called the corona virus
which has been so difficult to control or seize.

Will life never be the same again
or will people keep struggling to stay afloat
when a pandemic is challenging their daily routine
as workplaces and public transport becomes so unsafe
where one can infect another if they just cough or sneeze
yet no one stops their pursuits of life
whether it is the job they want to hold on to
or whether they want to walk to reach their homes.

Life in all its hues of troubles and sufferings,
life in all its challenges over necessities will never take a halt
even if the ocean of fear is overflowing
with a threat of a pandemic re-infection
as the air that we breathe, the water that we drink
is still trustworthy and necessary for enriching
existence and survival
that though helplessly our generations negotiate their way
thro those catastrophes with intensity of courage and hope
they know that above all,
God and man are amigos
and when one calls the other,
either God comes and grants mercy
or when God calls man,
man surrenders to eternal rest
whether it is the pandemic that is the cause
or whether it is the life span and its adversities
that breaks the strings of his existence from this earth,
yet humanity never stops fighting back,
helping each other and resisting extinction
no matter how powerful the cold hands
of death may be….