World War C

Refugee mother and child riding
a bike. In most countries, refugees are
excluded from Covid vaccinations.
Photo Courtesy: UNHCR

While men slept

His enemy crept

Up and sowed weed

Among the wheat.

And with morning came

A marauding plague

Of death and decay,

Making broken hearts reacquaint

The process of pain.

The extinction of the race

Is imminent

And Covid-19's now resident.

Folks be booking hospitals

Crawling all over the reception,

Like it's some exotic hotel's vestibule.

ICU Waiting Lists stretch long

Like the book of damnation

Cause patients sucking up oxygen

Faster than plants breed pathogens.

Refugees are the hardest hit

Cause they're denied nationality,

Nobody gives a pin

If they're healthy or sick.

But what if this Virus is man-made?

What if our research steps are ordained?

And we're programmed

On a wild goose chasing our tail?

What if we're left flat on our ass?

Perhaps, hope

Is not the only thing we have,

We might yet, dare to be bold

Cause we may yet redeem man

From a wave of pandemic

That refuses to die

But multiplies variants like a tick.

We fight an enemy that outright

Wastes us with impunity.

Akpan