It is May 2021. A little over a year since Covid hit us. Thousands have lost their lives, struggling for something as basic as oxygen. It is also a little over a year, George Floyd died, struggling for oxygen…. And I can’t help seeing the connection.

This 2 min poem is my attempt to connect the twin horrors of racism and a rampant epidemic

Many a man was hit by the virus, 

Many a black was hurt in the US. 

Poison spread like smokey wreath

Many a man gasped, “I can’t breathe”!

Here’s a story of a woman infected,

Rushed to a hospital much affected 

She was convinced, it was a sin, 

For a black to administer vaccine!

Refusing a hand that offered cure

She went  in search of someone pure

Poison spread like smokey wreath,

Her family gasped, “We can’t breathe” !

The arc of justice can be long, 

It takes a while to right a wrong,

For the deadly virus there is cure

But a bigoted heart is seldom never pure

- Koushik Krishnan