I am rusted
Can’t move
All I can do
Is watch As
The world flashes
Bye
This is the end
Isn’t it
Why is the world
Imploding as I rust
Away
I am rusting into dust
Each day
The sun shines
Too brightly
Each day
The land dries up
The rain helps me
Rust

It’s been days
Maybe weeks
Since I started
Rusting
The earth
Is dyed red
My eyes are heavy
My computing is slow
Is this the end
Will my system
Give into the virus

The virus that slowed
Me
The virus that hacked
Me

Piles of bullets
Pelt my side
Which side
I no longer know

Voice
Is that a voice
It has been so long
So lon
So
Lo
Lonely

A voice
There in the darkness
It is carrying me
Bringing me back
Back to the old me
The me I used to be
Before I became a shell
Wrapped in metal
Rusting away
While the world
Recovers

The world
Is recovering

My mind is lost
Where are those voices
The voices saying
Saying something
Wake up
My right eye
Pops open
I have no
Control
My left eye
Stays stubbornly closed

There she is
My voice of reason
I can feel
I can FEEL
Her hand
In mine
She smiles
So I smile

The metal
Swirls around
A whirlwind
In the back of
My mind

A TV materializes
Where the tornado
Was
Wait
There it is
Inside of the TV

Poem and drawing by Ashley Houston

This is a hard reality that we find ourselves in, but we will get through this together! You know what the new touch-less hug is? That’s right; it’s wearing your mask when you go out in public. Let’s start passing those hugs out! Protect yourself and your neighbors by distance hugging today. 🙂