PAST PRISM (July 19) —
The thing no one at all understands,
whether they lean left or right,
either the end of the world is at hand
or it just hove into sight.
A third of the world's people may die —
that's what pandemics can do
when measures against them are insufficient
and incompetent “leaders” haven't a clue.
That little thing back in 1918?
Expired three percent of the globe.
Coronavirus, I fear, aspires
to emulate one of the Great Plagues of old.
One thing is certain:
we've not learned a thing.
Prepare for the curtain,
bada-boom, bada-bing.
Against stupidity the very gods
Themselves contend in vain.
— Friedrich Schiller,
The Maid of Orleans
The Maid of Orleans