Virus Phantoms

by

Dale Angel

I don’t know how he found his way to my house but as soon as I closed the door he attacked me. Hind sight helped me realize he was shadowing me, undermining my reserves by way of a fatigue…I refused to acknowledge.

A coma-like sleep fell over me. When I awoke in the middle of the night I was compromised—my  throat was in a full red alert. He had me down and was inflicting pain. I could hardly breathe my head was spinning, re-arranging all I had stored there. I was under full unprovoked assault but unsure which enemy was laying siege. Lifting my head off the pillow to look at the clock, this battle is only a few hours old. I felt defenseless.

He squeezed my chest and I reacted by coughing and coughing and coughing it left me limp. Every time I felt like I may get a handle on the problem he barbed me somewhere. I could only react by coughing.  It hurt. My throat made raspy noises and croaky sounds. I was helpless.

Stumbling to my arsenal, I swallowed pills for pain and syrup for respite and tea to make it go down…  At the edge there were piercing chills stabbing me all over……  My arsenal is pitiful it has no teeth…a striking the air.

This war name is Virus. Their phantoms masquerading under many names that can only be identified by letters and numbers in code, it has no enemies.  It brings you to your knees and you cry for mercy it pounds you for days and days…

It will eventually wear itself out on what’s left of your weak and shaky strength…. Meantime, it allows you to think you’re making progress. It returns and revisits, leaving behind shards of glass in your chest until exhaustion caves you in.

More tea please; don’t over dose the cough syrup. It keeps you quiet for a couple of hours, meantime the stuff inside your chest is multiplying in gallons. There are regions of unexplored reservoirs there.

Your nose weeps, your hair hurts, your eyes turn inside out. Your whole body malfunctions. I could hear echo’s in my ears.

I thought I was lying on hot beaches in Hawaii. It was the electric blanket. I visited the Siberian Mountains during the winter season and froze.

After weeks I go shopping for something to eat; I’m sort of feeling in charge again, as soon as I get up to the cash register the virus attacks me and I go into fits of coughing, it sent everyone running.

It occurred to me this may be the previews of the coming attraction of the main event of the swine virus…bird virus…or a code number, now with top billing: CoVid-19. It’s stalking the Earth.

Get out of its way…

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