Glenn Kubish

To the list of cliched consolations built according to a similar sentence pattern—the one good thing about the pandemic is...the only silver lining in the pandemic is...if we've learned one thing from the pandemic, it's that...—I will add mine: the only true comfort in the pandemic has been Edgar Allan Poe.  Poe has been a companion since I dropped the needle on Dylan's latest album and heard the singer in I Contain Multitudes confess that he has "a tell-tale heart like Mr. Poe." I am back to Mr. Poe and reading the short stories and, as strange as it sounds, find in the horror something up to the ordeal we find ourselves in. Yes, I can try to balance out the grimness and the bleakness with good news stories, and I do. But Poe does the trick. The stories are little injections of dread that somehow work to stabilize my fears. Like to like. Literary vaccine.  The Premature Burial tells a story from the point of view of a young man terrified by the prospect of being ...

I can't shake the feeling that whatever play we thought we were in before isn't the play we're in now. The old set has been blown away...we have different lines...about obligation to each other. We're not so familiar with that script.  There's no shortage of lines. There are the basic messages. Distance, wash your hands, wear a mask, avoid social gatherings. There are the lines written by the humorists. Maintain physical distance, or 1 Joey Ramone. There's the threatening voice of authority. If we don't turn this around now, there will be tighter controls ahead. Clever wordplay, too. Spread the word, not the virus. Bend the curve, not the rules. Wearing a mask? Best time to get braces. The big picture: we are in this together, apart. The appeal to the heart: protect your loved ones.  Versions of the last line about protecting loved ones are curious. It's long been thought that protecting loved ones goes without saying. The human impulse to protect loved ...

Hello, doctor, our best friend You've come to talk with us again To share your mission for our safekeeping In an Internet public health meeting Your prescription that gets planted in our brains Must remain To confound the COVID virus We clean our hands, we scrub our phones In it together, though alone Every afternoon at 3:30 We watch you show us coolly and calmly A way ahead that's lit by the flash of scientific light Facts in black and white To confound the COVID virus  In a happy dream I saw Groups of 15, but no more People walking while they're distancing People hearing 'cause they're home working People walking dogs, people jogging up the stairs Sixfeetapart, and aware Of how best to disturb the COVID virus The fools are those who will not know Who bellow "up is down" and "yes is no" The schools are now closed but we learn from you How logic can still be our best guide through How reasoned words have the powe...