Standing in queue

Desperately buying toilet paper to wipe away their anxiety 

The fear of the uncertain and the unknown

Sticks to them with industrial strength glue 

 

The mask that they put on

But a manifestation 

of the one they’ve been wearing all along 

Just that others can see it clearly now 

 

The distance they are forced to maintain 

from one another

Only making visible

How aloof and apart they have grown 

 

Look !

Common folks trembling at sore throats

Doctors working in raincoats

Presidents looking for scapegoats

Governments promising treasury notes, ventilators 

vaccines and retribution

All in exchange for a fistful of votes 

 

See !

The poor and the wretched are hungry

The über rich worried about industry

TV channels scream conspiracy

Dictators helm democracy

Mankind’s collective descend into insanity 

Seems painfully complete

Replete

With debauchery and deceit

The result of man wanting to make God obsolete 

 

While it certainly looks all bleak and dire 

And though it did come right out of the blue 

Disease and death is nothing new

Yet another reminder of what is temporary 

And what is True 

 

Thus, it is in times like these

That we must redouble our desire

To rid ourselves of material quagmire

We must not pause, we must not cease

To chant and chant and chant and pray

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare