How the world has changed

The pandemic started somewhere.
That in itself is not only the give all,
but the get all.

Yellow fever wiped out the Chowning
clan, my family in Livingston, Tennessee.
In researching my maternal great

grandmother’s grandfather, I found that
bit of history, not lore, or oral tradition.
This poem is not just a rendition

of one pandemic from the past,
but is our present.
The poet, Billy Collins’ understanding

of how the world has changed,
for you, for me,
for all the world is simply words:

“So I’m 79 years old. And it sounds insane
to say that, but it’s the truth, and I’m pretty
sure if I caught it, it would kill me.

And Suzannah shares that view.
So she’s pretty willful
about keeping me in the house.”