An Abundance of Caution
Global Poemic 2021
All the pandemic poems—are they occasional poems? I know the label’s not a perfect fit; some pandemic poems are works of deep, lasting elegy. (And the poems aren’t, usually, titled “Poem to Be Read Upon the Commencement of a Global Pandemic.” Though—that poem!—I would read that poem.) Still, I feel a heightened documentary impulse in our current moment. Remember when the grocery stores were like this? When this phrase was on everyone’s lips? Remember last year? Remember yesterday?
copious prudence
a surging wave of vigilance
a veritable cornucopia of care
​
preceded by out of as in
derived from rather than lacking
rather than sold out rather than
the empty shelf of bleach the favorite brand
of tampons toilet paper and canned beans
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compare with overabundance
of caution meaning excess meaning
too profuse an exhortation
to take heed meaning look children
up at the circling birds
​
the pretty bellies of the birds
of prey how many above
the playground an abundance
can we count to eight
a fat number more than the days
of the week therefore
​
an omen of plenty
but plenty of what