Mary Ellen Talley
Public Service Announcement
Do not get into bed tonight without ignoring
Outbursts, overstatements, hype, and conjectures.
Never mind who complains about the maleficent media
And who has a hunch this will be all over by April,
to which families of the deceased take little solace as they
Empty their guts with grief that a loved one died in quarantine.
Be wise, keep your distance, give the “jazz hands” salute.
Let the youth stay in school so parents can earn health insurance.
Offer up this unexpected social sacrifice and hygiene frenzy.
Offer to others a semblance of hope to alleviate the next disaster.
Drop into your local blood bank, both red and blue hats are welcome.
Mary Ellen Talley’s poems have recently appeared in Raven Chronicles, Banshee, Flatbush Review, and Ekphrastic Review, as well as in the anthologies All We Can Hold: Poems of Motherhood (Sage Hill Press, 2016), edited by Elise Gregory, Emily Gwinn, Kaleen McCandless, Kate Maude, and Laura Walker; and Ice Cream Poems: Reflections on Life with Ice Cream (World Enough Writers, 2017), edited by
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