the common cold

Quick! Run for the hills! The Rhinovirus is coming! The Rhinovirus is coming!

ode to the common cold,

whose unrelenting attack

provokes our noses to run

marathons, our throats to burn

and cut from the insides (panging

as if they were about to shoot

blood), our stomachs to lose the

want to consume nutrients, our

head to womp womp womp &

ache worse than the worst time

we ever hit our heads on something

blunt, our bodies to tire (wrought

with sheer exhaustion), our same

nose that were once running to

now stop & clog themselves like

pipes stuffed to the brim with

garbage, our eyes to itch red until

they turn pink, our chests to heave

with a cough that shakes our throats

as if our heads were about to snap

clear off our necks, our muscles to

ache pulsate aches like we’ve been

in a dozen prize fights before lunch,

the shivering frozen moments of our

fever where we feel as if we spent too

much time with superman in his

cold crystal palace, and the depths of

the fire of that same fever which

push us all closer to the threshold of

what we consider to be death---and as

we all attempt to shake this real demon

(as shown to us time & time again by

our scientific method) inside us, through

the use of every syrup, pill, salve & rub

imaginable, we still cannot turn from the

fact that the common cold unifies us,

in fact, mild illness in general---that which

does not kill us, can in fact infect us all

regardless of our age, sex, race, ethnicity,

class, sexual preference, or

nationality---ah, so wondrous to be sick

amongst our fellow

species.