Its was a hot afternoon 16th march,
Sitting down facing my laptop screen
I'm home away from school
I logged into my account on Facebook
I opened back when
I was in forth grade so
I could monitor girls
I had crushes on
but now
I monitor a fiend passing on
But at first I didn't know,
My fingertip was just swoopping, gliding, liking, comenting posts
In my wall...

Suddenly,
My phone vibrates, I tapped open to a message saying:

"Hey man! I'm off to work"

He told me he earns a living
Where Smith slaughters hogs
That massive eight-story white box
Sitting by the banks of the Sioux river
The ninth-largest hog processing facility
With a full capacity processing 19,500
Freshly-slaughtered hogs par day
3,700 workers slicing, grinding, smoking them to hot dogs
And pounds of bacons
And spiral-cut hams

The poor immigrant has no choice
Neither does he have a voice
Choice of refusesing to work and be able to buy his kids toys
Voice to protest and reclaim his worker rights and be able to silence his belly's noice

Refusesing to work cause it's not safe in times of quarantine
It's not safe in times like this, I guess you know the corona-routine
That SARS like, viral, forcrown, corvid-ninteen

Protest and reclaim his worker rights cause he deserves it all
He deserves it all like any other nurmal human being
Other nurmal human being with a nurmal well being

After all, buying his kinds toys is the list of all his toils
The list of all his toils cause they starving back at home
I guess now you understand why he gotta bake some bread

For it takes only a bread to silence his belly's noice
And you know a hungry man is an angry man
And an angry man is a wild dog
And to tame a wild dog
Is best you start when its still a poppy

Knowing fully well his condition
I heavely regrete why I could'nt figure out
what advice to give-him
About him going to work with no doubts
Or fears that getting infected could kill him

I guess it was because I was feeling guilty
Guilty of not being able to help a friend in need
In need of a the basic things in life
In life, what's more better then the air we breath?
The air we breath is a gift but now I feel its a curse
Its a curse because now I gotta put on a mask to prevent the worst

Then I replied " Alright man, be safe !!"

And that day faded out like any other day
Like any other day the sun falls in the west
And in the east where the moon rises for the falling of a day
Then falls in the west for the rising of a new day

With every tick-tock that clocks, weeks went by
Weeks went by as photos on a slideshow
A slideshow showing how my nightmare unfolds
Unfolds like the folds of my blanket over me

Over me like paralysis taking controle of me
Controlling me like someone was pulling my strings
Strings that finally woke my eyes wide open
Widely opened to the gift of another new day

A new day, 31st march, it's a chilly morning
A chilly morning with a heart quaking news
News carring my friends SMS saying:
"I'm actually in quarantine
I tested positive to the covid-ninteen
At the Sioux Falls hospital for the clinical routine"

As soon as I ran through the lines of his text,
I was paralysed and shocked
Shocked like I was struck from my head to my toes and I felt so alone
So alone cause its was like he was letting me go
Letting me go cause he's got the disease and there is no vaccine

The only thing I could do was give a him a face time call
A face time call instead of a hospital visit
Hospital visit? I guess I won't be allowed to penetrate quarantine tents

So I sat still with my face plunging into my phone
Into my phone and right on to his paled face
His paled masked face and his brown eyes gazing in through his hanging eyelids

Looking at him, I lacked words to describe how sorry I was
How sorry I was that it had to be him
It had to be him laid on a sick bed

Then I got an idea of how to help him look at the bright side
The bright side where hope lies beyond all believes
But even before I could say what I had in minde, he stopped me
He stopped me to tell me about the gravity of his health:

"The Doc said he gonn do the best
The best he can put in to see me back on my feet
Back on my feet even though he konws my smoking issue
My smoking issue for 20 years now and some months

He said that's why I got hamaring aches on my C.P.U.
Aches on my C.P.U. and my nostrils loss smell
My nosetrils loss smell and my tongue loss taste
My tongue loss taste and my throat-sores
My throat-sores and am I'm feeling grotty

He said my immune system is bleeding cytokines
Cytokines rallying me up but I still feel the pain like it was injected in my vains

He said pneumonia is inflamating my lungs that's why I'm caughing sputum
Cauging sputum and I'm breathing but like in a water buttum
In a water buttum and the linnigs of my intestines might succumb
Succumb and my blood pressure is droping to the core
To the core but that's not the worst of it all
The worst of it all is that my body is not fighting back at all

He said that's why he had to put me on an acute respiratory distress
Nevertheless, the ventilator blowing breath to my lungs but it's fed up with the stress..."

The E.C.M.O. machine beeping,
His blood pressure collapsing
The Doc and Nurses rushing to reanimate him
But they couldn't retrieve him from the arms of a severe pneumatic septic shock