Read about plagues, endemics, epidemics, pandemics
Animal reservoirs, hosts and intermediates
black rats, fleas, pigs, bats, cows, pangolins, camels, chickens, birds, civets
And the Connection?
Commodity production
profit-seeking
wet markets, wild-life farming, monoculture
mega-industrial farming
land grab, deforestation, global warming
Exotic foods, wild-life delicacies
porcupines, crocodiles, reptiles on top
a short-nosed dogfish dish
coffee from defecated cherries
A metabolic rift
Nature’s wrath
pathogens unbox
a pandora’s box open
no herd immunity
zoonosis unleashed
Virus and diseases with places and numbers
Russian Flu, Spanish Flu, Asian Flu, Hong Kong Flu
Bolivian haemorhaggic fever
Malaysian Nipah Virus, Kerala Nipah Virus, Ebola Virus
HIV/AIDS, H5N1, SARS, H1N1, MERS-COV
Now SARS-COV-2, COVID-19
Diffusion …. 515 million internal flights
Tens of thousands perish
To be repeated ….?
This poem was submitted on 1 May 2020. You may republish this poem, so long as you credit the author/s and Karibu! Online (www.Karibu.org.za), and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.
