Six Degrees Of Separation

used to mean something quite benign.

With this virus stalking the feeble,
testing everyone and taking who it can,
we are in for something very different
from the usual 'six degrees of separation'.

Soon we will all know somebody
who knows somebody who knows somebody,
who the virus separated from life when theirs ended.

Alistaire Cooke talked in his old age
of the many widows he saw in his youth
who after WW1 and Spanish flu
were noted for being seen in public
with black bands on their arms
in memory of their newly gone husbands.

After we have completed our home made face masks
and taken what care of each other we can
then maybe we should consider
making black arm bands for the future,
if not for ourselves then for another,
-they are going to be useful.