Disposable masks, disposable people.
“Do you remember?”
I’ve never had the luxury to forget.
Covid never ended.
For disabled people,
for the chronically ill,
for the immunocompromised,
for those of us with Long Covid,
it never ended.
People were all too ready to throw their masks away.
What tyranny! To expect society to do the right thing.
To suffer the small discomfort of a mask,
or condemn the weakest common denominator to
isolation, suffering, and death.
Covid is only in your rearview,
if you ran over those still vulnerable.
Society en masse decided that,
deliberately ignorant eugenics is the way forward.
And again, I remind you, that you,
yes you, dear reader,
can become disabled or sick tomorrow,
and then you’re as disposable as I am.
People are so ready to wear signs of liberalism.
“Look at me wear a blue bracelet!”
“Look at me wear a safety pin!”
“I voted for so-and-so!”
“I’m a safe person to be around!”
Empty symbols in the game of semiotics.
Do you want to show how much you care?
How progressive you are?
How safe you are as a person to be around?
Wear a mask.
Charl Landsberg is a South African artist, musician, poet, and writer who’s work often focuses on issues on issues of social justice.