All evil spirits thrive in ceaseless brutal din

Here in Satan's palace

where vile infection rules

Spews out secretly through germ-soaked masks

Oozes out through too-moist flesh

Glares out from angry eyes,

Angry that you're masked, that you're barefaced

That you stepped aside while walking, that you did not

That you kept your gloves on, did not group pump sanitize

That your naked, suspect hands caressed the pump while sanitizing

That you handled goods inside the store, then did not buy it all

(trying to kill our staff?)

That you passed on by the store, made no supportive purchase

(trying to kill our economy?)

But most of all the evil spreads, infects through sound

Wild viral furor builds, explodes in street shrieks, queer curses,

Violent invective, rude retorts, random bursts of clamour . . . .

Mad monologues, loudly lewd

From shabby strangers striding down these city streets

And — indistinguishable —

Mad-seeming dialogues, gesticulant, poured into ear-bud iPhones,

From different shabby striding strangers

With self-same crudely shouting voice

Droning piercing vibrant chanting,

The chanter lounging curbside, smirking

as he stands and stares and loudly chants

Hammered leaned-on horn sounds

Sudden squealing brake sounds,

from swerving cars with steamy windows tightly sealed

Shrill renos vie with raucous public works, roped off with covid signs,

Keep our workers safe! do not approach! do not ask questions!

sidewalk closed (suddenly) street closed (as of now)

Masked men loom up all hours of day, and into night as well

Commence at once their brutal ear assaults

Drill roadway, sever steel, smash stone, hack down homes and trees

And more pandemic sound, and more and more

all the hateful loud ones

Plus constant whispered torment of new covid news

All kinds of updates — greedy hackers keen to sabotage a cure,

Mutations reconfiguring the spiked corona crowns

To make foul diadem inviolate . . . .

And even nature's well-known sounds,

the hidden dripping rain, the groaning, icebound branch,

the keening moaning wuthering wind

All sounds infected, all frightful now

'Til all this tainted world shivers, echoes, wails and moans

Fearsome uproar, cacophony malign, abruptly manifest

There, right there — no here, right here, right where you are,

Right where you live, if you live,

if you can even live at all

Devil noise of madness,

sound without meaning, rhythm, rhyme, or consequence

explodes, no warning, unavoidable, uncontrollable and uncontrolled

Endlessly imposed, already in you,

on you, up on top of you,

demanding an ambiguous and fraught compliance

Even on local streets, even locked down 'safe' at home....

In one brief beat of sudden silence your tv, still on, speaks up

"Pandemic's made everything so quiet," commentator sadly says

Yet . . . demons once were little gods and little more

Nothing worse — like tv commentators, not really evil

Godlings, spirits, sprightly sprites who raised a ruckus, time to time

And . . . and nothing, no big deal!

What happened?

What — in Hell — has happened?