Forgotten

Once we OPEN UP OUR GREAT COUNTRY, and it will be sooner rather than later, the horror of the Invisible Enemy, except for those that sadly lost a family member or friend, must be quickly forgotten. Our Economy will BOOM, perhaps like never before!!!
—@realDonaldTrump, April 8, 2020, earning 203,700 "likes"

Conjure back the day before yesterday—
the day you reveled in.
Revel again!

Forgotten souls filing in to long dinner tables at five
and forced from a dank basement at nine the next morning

Forgotten, the dusky corridors of low-slung edifices whose doctors
floated away to bigger cities years ago

Forgotten, the particles of coal rushing to mingle with exhaust
in the small bodies of children

Drink the potion of forgetfulness.
Revel far into the night!

This poem was published in volume 9 of Lost Lake Folk Opera literary magazine, Winter 2024.

Andy Oram
May 28, 2020

More poems