rrodriguez

There’s a virus inside the camp

There’s a virus inside the camp:

You think I’m kidding, & like to say

Outlandish & outrageous things. No there’s

A virus inside the camp.

It’s a rabid animal, a hidden threat

Under a tent, dug deep, in a darkened hole,

Secretly covered by a man in a stuffy,

Clustered home. He acts like nothing is wrong.

How can it be known,

There is a virus inside the camp.

The battle rages along in Ai.

Passed the wide wadi, passed a valley.

Close combat, mortal wounds, many fall,

Swords cut deep into beating hearts.

Soldiers drag weights under their feet

As they run the long bloody valley below

Of palms, arched-up high like giant

Witnesses of the carnage.

The soldiers’ pale hands hold

Jagged broken swords. They surrender to the foe;

Time drags on, the battle’s lost.

The general groveled on the ground face down,

The demise seemed foredoom,

Aghast, searching, can’t explain the utter defeat.

He asked, God, why the defeat? God said,

‘There’s a virus inside the camp!’

‘The virus must be removed.’

‘The virus must be purged by fire.’

And so, they found the virus,

It was destroyed; the next battle was won.