Day 1199, Lives and Jobs 

 

How many jobs saved cost how many lives?

That’s the equation that we have to write

And solve when any pandemic arrives,

To wake from this nightmare into new light.

 

We knew we’d lose both, when COVID evolved;

To all our scientists, that much was clear.

If we can’t stop COVID, nothing is solved.

Back to work early, the cost in lives, dear.

 

It’s not “either-or;” it’s rather: “both-and.”

Job losses, life losses, are tightly bound.

Values are challenged; we must understand;

Our souls are examined; here’s what we found.

 

For left wingers: lives—what they emphasize,

For right wingers: jobs—or else bankruptcy.

Exceptions, of course, both sides compromise.

Absolute?  No, but a clear tendency.

 

Our president now sounds pretty right wing.

The White House line is…”We’re over the hump.”

The markets move Trump; “…death, where is thy sting?”  (1)

What Trump wants to fix: the stock market slump.

 

Whom or what do we save, what price to pay?

The whole world’s infected.  What do you say?

 

(1)  “O, death, where is thy sting?”  1 Corinthians 15:55