Nicole Calivo
Precautionary
The rickshaw driver
can’t claim unemployment when
India shuts down
No one in the streets—
all shops and food stalls closed—and
cops keep you at home
His family’s meal
once made from the day’s wages
now goes uneaten
And so they hunger
as the virus ravages
and threatens to near
Even then doctors
are ousted: treating the sick,
they might have it too
Wary India
Who’s left to drive the rickshaws
when fear has starved us
—Submitted on 03/27/2020
Nicole Calivo lives in Washington State and scribbles haiku.
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