by Ron Riekki
or, this year, Sweatiest Day, how hot
the goddamn gowns and gloves are in-
side the war of the COVID wards, how
STUPID are the anti-maskers, the 27—
at my current count—White Housers
positive, and here I’m a pessimist,
seeing the ramifications, seeing the
ventilators, seeing the conventions,
packed with people; or maybe it’s
the SWATest Day, the ICEist day,
these days of mass pollution/mass
arrests for immigrants just trying
to go to mass, or to work; or may-
be it’s the Sleepiest Day, the mass
hypnosis of this world, being told
that this virus will just "go away,"
told by someone who, by the way,
could get re-infected, someone who
just had a runny nose, but now who’s
running for President when he has
never yet actually been President,
or been presidential, just swinging
pendulums in front of our eyes,
telling us we’re feeling sleepy, so
sleepy; or maybe it is, as I said,
the Heat-est Day, the Hottest Day,
the hottest October 17 that’s ever
been recorded, because, sadly,
that’s the theme of this year, how
there haven’t really been any holi-
days this year, just evil-days, sad-
days, maydays, doomsdays, play-
days where kids can’t touch, birth-
days where we can’t hug, because
we’re on an expressway to hell if
we don’t stop the way we treat
the world and the way we treat
each other, if we fall for the tricks
that led us to this collapse, the tricks
of 2016 where the U.S. was covered
in red. Honestly, aren’t you, too, tired?
Ron Riekki's latest books in 2020 are Niiji (Cyberwit, co-written with Sally Brunk), i have been warned not to write about this (Main Street Rag), and The Many Lives of It (McFarland).