Will it be different after?

Will it be different after?

by Ted Miller

(originally published June 2020 in Tumbleweird)

I think it is grief,

this sadness,

this anger,

this fear.

They say the first phase is denial,

but there is no denying the virus is
here, 

no denying it is deadly,

no denying it is real. 

Tell the hundred thousand dead it’s a
hoax.

Tell their families they would have
died anyway.

Tell the million infected it’s just the
flu.

Tell the sick to get back to work.

The virus doesn’t care.

But the virus carries a message, if only
we can hear.

The virus has laid bare the truth, of
what was true long before. 

We are all human, but we are not all
the same.

Some of us are essential, but not
essential enough.

Essential to work the fields.

Essential to butcher the meat.

Essential to nurse the sick.

Essential to serve our food, to mind
the store, to work the assembly
line, to cut our hair, to deliver our
goods, to clean our houses, 

to be invisible,

as our essential wants and needs are
met.

But not essential enough to have
their basic needs met. 

Not essential enough to live without
fear

of poverty, of hunger, of deportation,
of sickness, of death.

The virus knows no boundary

of class, or race, or wealth.

But the virus exposes disparity

among class, and race, and wealth.

Millions now unemployed, no
income, no health care, no
savings, crippling debt

and we blame them for being poor.

“They might get a few extra dollars!”
we cry,

angry that they are undeserving,

while ignoring the billions sent to
Wall Street 

with no strings attached,

believing in the trickle-down that will
never come.

Black, Brown, and Indigenous people
dying at twice or thrice the rate of
whites

and we blame them for getting sick
and dying.

“Make better choices!” we say

while ignoring the centuries of
inequity built into America

denying equal access to health care,
to nutrition, to income, to life. 

And before the curve is flattened,

before the virus is contained, we
carry our signs and our weapons

demanding America be opened again

so we can have our essential wants
and needs

provided by the non-essential
workers.

We want our liberty, but we don’t
want the responsibility.

We want our freedom, but we don’t
want to be responsible for the cost
of that freedom to others.

“Tyranny!” we cry. “Give us our
freedom!”

Freedom from tyranny?

Tyranny is the hunger of millions of
children every night 

Tyranny is voter suppression that
denies citizens an equal voice 

Tyranny is health care for profit, while
millions get sick and die

Tyranny is the oppression that has
upheld systemic racism for
hundreds of years 

Tyranny is people dying, while you
refuse to wear a mask

Give me liberty, or give me death

But whose death is the cost of your
liberty?

I think it is grief,

this sadness,

this anger,

this fear.

Grief for what could have been

if we weren’t divided

by class, by race, by wealth.

Grief can lead to despair, grief can
lead to action

and action leads to hope, now and in
the time after.

Hope that in the time after, when the
world faces pandemic, climate
change, global recession, or war, 

our response reflects we are all
human, essential, the same.