Outbreak

Artist: Banksy | photo by bawol

Origin
No one quite knows where the sickness began
When it made the jump from beast to man
Before it consumed all the men of the land
   Though they say it’s as old as the trees.

Symptoms
Once it’s embedded, the virus it grows
When stricken, we’re sickened to lowest of lows
And always in small ways the symptoms will show
    And fell us to our knees.

Transmission
The toxins disperse from the mouth through the air
They shed and they spread til they’re everywhere
Though most of us hosts we remain unaware
    That we carry a deadly disease.

From down in the heartland to coastal elites
In rednecks and roughnecks and in the effete
From mainstreet to Wallstreet
From big street to small street
It cuts across all streets
    With ease.

Damage
It causes a cocktail of fear to combust
and turns people on people, eroding our trust
As we now look on strangers in hidden disgust
    And watch them with unease.

Treatment
And once the virus is afloat
There’s no vaccine or antidote
No common treatment to promote
    We lack the expertise.

Diagnosis
The testing of it’s tricky, too
As I’ll attest, no test will do
For this sickness is a point of view
   It varies by degrees.

This virus has many names, you see
Intolerance. Hatred. Bigotry.
It’s surely infected both you and me.
    This terrible disease.