No Clowning Around

/ Ken Gierke / rivrvlogr

No Clowning Around

Congratulations!
39 out of 67!
That’s pretty good, right?
Who wouldn’t want to be batting .582?

Wait. You mean 39 of you have COVID-19?
Oh, 36. Three have already died. Well, that’s different.
Hang in there. At least the other 28 are symptom-free.
For now. I’ll bet they’re glad to be in that nursing home with you.

I’m sure the 28 staff who tested positive will be back to work
in no time. After all everyone in town wears a mask. (Wink, Wink)
There’s still time to thank the clown who told you,
over and over, not to worry about this little virus.

Just remember to put an X next his name
when you mail in your ballot.

Breaking news: 29 staff members and 39 of 67 residents at a nursing home two blocks
from my home, in this state capital with no mask requirement, in a state with no mask requirement, have tested positive for COVID-19. Three of those residents have died.

I have nothing but respect for those who are suffering and those who have lost their lives.
I have absolutely no respect for the posse of clowns we refer to as our leaders, those who have failed (and continue to fail, more than six months into the pandemic) to take the appropriate
and timely measures needed to assure that events such as this do not occur.

This poem is my response to dVerse Poetics – Clowning Around, the prompt from Lisa
at dVerse~ Poets Pub, which is to write a poem using the word “clown.”

38 thoughts on “No Clowning Around”

  2. Ken, your information makes my stomach lurch. No masks at all in your state and those individuals trapped in places they can’t leave from… In a pizza place near my younger son and his wife’s there is a sign posted to the effect, “the governor says everyone must wear masks but we are not going to enforce that with customers or employees.” Supposedly it started at some place up north and now it’s gone viral and businesses are putting it in windows everywhere. I can’t help but think of the customers and employees who WANT to stay safe but whose lives are at risk because of this idiocy. Please stay safe, my friend.

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    • Thank you, Lisa. It is so disturbing. Dr. Deborah Birx, coronavirus response coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force, was in town today and joined the governor for a briefing. She “recommended” masks for Missouri. The governor wore a mask (rare for him), but he recently rationalized his reason for not requiring masks by saying he wouldn’t want anyone to tell him he has to wear one. Missouri, The Show Me State.

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  3. A timely and suitably angry response to the prompt. Unfortunately when a country is led by a clown, lives are lost needlessly. The same is happening in my country, also led by a clown. You expressed this very well and it made me angry too!

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  4. ouch what maddening and saddening news! Nursing homes here have suffered greatly too, no plan, too few staff, etc etc …

    You must vote differently over there, any mark next to a name means you want them in!

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  5. I can’t believe people are not wearing masks! My husband told me that he has seen one or two people without masks in a UK supermarket and he confronted them, but when he asked a supermarket employee why they were not enforcing the wearing of masks, he was told that they were only part of government guidelines! The numbers of those with Covid have gone down over here, but the numbers in the US are still much too high. Cases in nursing homes were dreadful over here and I would hope that the US would learn from the experiences of other countries. Why are people so stupid, irresponsible and selfish? Stay safe and well, Ken.

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        • The claim is that all necessary measures were taken, but when you have a general population that refuses to follow simple precautionary guidelines, any one of the staff is open to exposure with each moment spent away from their job, and therefore on the job.

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        • Of course, it’s meaningless if there are going to be massive holes to fall through. There have been examples of heroic proportions here where the entire staff of some care homes barricaded themselves in with the patients for three months, not going home or having any contact with the outside world. But that’s the staff. The companies that own care homes are greedy and uncaring. Some don’t provide basic care despite charging **** rates, so the likelihood that they’d shell out for added care without being forced was pretty remote.

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  15. Chilling isn’t Ken. That group of nursing home patients that died at the beginning of the year when this shit first started in this country were here in Kirkland WA, less than a 1/4 mile from my home. But praise to our state leaders, they got it under control by shutting this state down. Its not over by any means, but a real tragedy was averted by quality state leaders and, by and large, smart citizenry. But this country is full of asshats, especially our national leaders, that just don’t care, and that is why it keeps spiking. Trump just wants to be President for life, and he doesn’t care how many he needs to kill to make that happen.

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