April first vaccine numbers burst, COVID thirst
\ndriving near a cemetery, dying to get away
\nCOVID tragicomedy commentary
\nhad two vaccine shots of Pfizer\u00a0
\nmask and restrictions still in place
\ndon\u2019t feel any wiser
\ntwo shots of RNA vaccine\u00a0
\nhad the same of Irish whiskey
\nCOVID spring cleaning
\nnurse says hello, now I\u2019m a two shot fellow,
\narm a little sore but feeling mellow
\nApril first vaccine numbers burst,
\nCOVID losing some thirst\u00a0
\nno shaking any person\u2019s hands\u00a0
\nCOVID in downward spiral,
\nCDC has published new plans\u00a0
\nchurch meetings, elbow greetings, distant seatings
\nvaccine variants a global godsend, COVID conjure
\nno kisses or hugs, case numbers go viral, helpless shrugs
\nbull in the pasture bossing heifers, old herd immunity
\nwashing hands the umpteenth time, COVID commands
\ncomplaints, pouts, negative doubts, science dropouts
\nhair pulled out, forgot what\u2019s inside, psyche needs help
\nvirus voyagers blowing in from Brazil, U.K. yesterday
\npandemic no myth, year two of COVID, still reading Ovid
\ninside coping wishing and hoping, outside wide open
\nstaying home with books and poem, tomorrow roam
\nmany stores closed, buying from home, COVID Center
\nbut I ain\u2019t blue, got my shots too, just like you
\nnot feeling ill, two shots, I\u2019ve had my fill,
\nnow it is chance, good luck and God\u2019s will
\ncontemplation, eternal elation, cremation.<\/p>\n
Joey \u2018Pepe Batbon\u2019 Connolly (Special to the Saipan Tribune)<\/strong> April first vaccine numbers burst, COVID thirst driving near a cemetery, dying to get away…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":322001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[26,23672,23673,13843],"class_list":["post-342693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-cnmi","tag-lvnv","tag-nola","tag-pepe-batbon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nJoey aka Pepe Batbon is a retired educator who taught in the CNMI, NOLA, and LVNV. He is a sonnet practitioner who enjoys stargazing.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"