Philip Howard

Preston, UK

 

Philip Howard would like to see poetry restored as an art form which can be appreciated by all through relevant and accessible work that tackles compelling subject matter. Some of his newer poetry has been published in anthologies such as The Stony Thursday Book, on websites such as The Health of the North and The Film Mag., and in various editions of magazines and e-magazines such as Snakeskin, Decanto, The Recusant, Angle, and Prole.

 

This poem was written i and completed on 22 April 2020.

 

Index Case

 

I am patient zero,

Not one, two or three,

I am the index case,

That's little old me.

 

Like Typhoid Mary

I started the rot,

The road to rack and ruin,

The loss of the plot.

 

Remember the Black Death

In dear old London Town?

All I did was sneeze

And half the place burned down.

 

Take the Spanish Flu

After the Great War,

Me? I was the first;

There were countless more.

 

Corona is the latest,

Even worse than AIDS,

I was in the vanguard,

Death followed me in spades.

 

I've brought down empires

And their rulers too,

Caused the death of millions,

Yet I am just like you:

 

Just one of the herd,

A speck in ecology

Known only to his Maker

And epidemiology.