‘Advice from Dante’ on Mask Wearing and Other Poetry by Cynthia Erlandson

.

Advice from Dante

“If you hear nostrums* in the market cried,
Behave like men, and not like witless sheep.” —Dante, Paradiso, Canto V

Behave like men, and not like witless sheep.
The CDC has shown no evidence
That covering one’s face with cloth will keep
The people near us “safe”—that it prevents
A virus from fulfilling its intent.
Until this year, it’s always been apparent
That if in fact I am asymptomatic,
You need not fear me. It’s undemocratic
To force a farce-mask mandate. It’s naïve
For any thinking grownup to believe
That hiding two-thirds of our countenance
Will send a virus packing. Common sense
Tells us this is false—a nonsense nostrum—
Just as absurd as Whitmer, Wolf, or Newsom
Pretending to be kind and sympathetic.
If you think that this talisman is magic,
Recall: we’ve always known that it is burglars
And kidnappers who hide their faces. Logic
And law both warn that when we are in public,
Our faces should be seen.
___________________We won’t do favors
To anyone by trusting as our saviors
Such bureaucrats as vacillating Fauci
And WHO—as if they care about our health
More than their drive for power. (They get grouchy,
In fact, when we find out about their stealth
And catch them breaking their own useless rules!)
How blind do sheepish people have to be
To trust the facial-diaper “remedy”?
They’re laughing at us, thinking we are fools
Who don’t know how to reason critically.
(And, don’t think this is only temporary;
Clearly that was never what they meant—
Counting sheep, by masks, was the intent.)
Until a year ago, it was just common
Sense that if I’m well, I can’t make someone
Else sick. The study shows we aren’t contagious;**
Abusing the word “science” is outrageous.
How have we let them take so much control
That we can’t even see each other smile?
How have men become so gullible
As to believe the tyrants’ baseless guile,
And sacrifice their right to oxygen?
Don’t act like witless sheep. Behave like men
And women. Don’t give tyrants the control
Over your face, because their final goal
Is to possess your body and your soul.

.

*nostrum: a questionable medicine or remedy (I had to look it up.)
**A study completed in December 2020, of nearly ten million people in Wuhan, concluded that asymptomatic transmission of COVID-19 didn’t occur at all. : (www.lifesitenews.com/news/asymptomatic-transmission-of-covid-19-didn’t-occur-at-all-study-of-10-million-finds)

.

.

Do What?

“Treat your mask like underwear.” (seen on an actual bulletin board at an actual senior center)

Treat your mask like underwear—
Don’t ever let it near your face!
Such things are private, so take care
To save yourself from this disgrace.

.

.

Cynthia Erlandson is a poet and fitness professional living in Royal Oak, Michigan.  She has had poems published in First Things, Modern Age, Measure Journal, Anglican Theological Review, The North American Anglican, Forward in Christ, and the Anthologies The Slumbering Host (ed. Clinton Collister), and A Widening Light, (ed. Luci Shaw)