Sunday poem: "The Great Leveler"

The Great Leveler

I awoke this morning with a glimmer

that only poets and mystics are blessed

to experience, an insight that rendered

everyone equal, and no amount of money,

power, talent, or social status can keep

the great leveler from contracting the

world with the coronavirus responsible

for the global pandemic that’s taking

people down like dominos (627 people

died in Italy yesterday) and will not be

neutralized by the appropriate vaccine

until the great leveler has awakened the

world to the existential reality of our

inevitable mortality; then, and only then

will we shift our priorities from our selfish

exploitation of nature and our fellow man

to mindful resourcefulness and equitable

sharing and make the world a better

place to raise our children.