the common cold

ode to the common cold,
whose unrelenting attack
provokes our noses to run
marathons, our throats to burn
and cut from the insides (panging
as if they were about to shoot
blood), our stomachs to lose the
want to consume nutrients, our
head to womp womp womp &
ache worse than the worst time
we ever hit our heads on something
blunt, our bodies to tire (wrought
with sheer exhaustion), our same
nose that were once running to
now stop & clog themselves like
pipes stuffed to the brim with
garbage, our eyes to itch red until
they turn pink, our chests to heave
with a cough that shakes our throats
as if our heads were about to snap
clear off our necks, our muscles to
ache pulsate aches like we’ve been
in a dozen prize fights before lunch,
the shivering frozen moments of our
fever where we feel as if we spent too
much time with superman in his
cold crystal palace, and the depths of
the fire of that same fever which
push us all closer to the threshold of
what we consider to be death---and as
we all attempt to shake this real demon
(as shown to us time & time again by
our scientific method) inside us, through
the use of every syrup, pill, salve & rub
imaginable, we still cannot turn from the
fact that the common cold unifies us,
in fact, mild illness in general---that which
does not kill us, can in fact infect us all
regardless of our age, sex, race, ethnicity,
class, sexual preference, or
nationality---ah, so wondrous to be sick
amongst our fellow
species.