Not wanting to say it out loud, and shout it I surely will not. Neither in a state of denial, nor pretending to be. And denying not the fear - that refuses to be felt. As an aside instead, here then said: To be imagined now: this grimace not feigned. Forced disaffection; barely - or not even - restrained. Days - each one, and to follow fast, to Weeks turn, to more thereof- to this date at the very least. Distress so rarely exposed is creeping now near, nearer to Fate shared. Not the cholera, no love here - no, not in this time - not with this pest. (This plague upon all our houses.) Hovering, menacing - dictating our existence now to that which may not come. -Anne Dromache, April 25, 2020.
Some solace: words written and lost along the way or never found, searched for or come upon by chance, may find their time again and the readers they were waiting for.
Everyone it seems has a recommended reading relevant to this time. For me, one come’s immediately to mind: Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Love in the Time of Cholera – I loved this book years ago, but will not read it again now. My hefty flirtation with Latin American magic realism was a long time ago, and has life associations that I’d rather not disturb but confine to memory … I’ve been to Aracataca, I’ve not lived a hundred years…A fatalist would find confirmation and the inevitability of it all in One Hundred Years of Solitude. Many have mentioned Daniel Defoe’s The Journal of the Plague Year, which is freely available in many corners of the Internet – NO copyright! Hardly surprising given it was written in 1722 about the 1665 Great Plague of London! And then there is Samual Pepys’ diary version of the same plague – here is a collection of relevant extracts. Pepys is fun to dive into I must admit – in a very bawdy sort of Renaissance way, though just how much fun I’m up to in this regard at the moment I’m not at all sure. A book that I know of and for other reasons has been on my reading list for quite some time (and that I haven’t heard mentioned of late) is Year of Wonders (2001) by Geraldine Brooks, again set during 1665-66.
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