two legged beasts choked
in afternoon's haze, days all rated
like pain, 1 to 10

3's admonitions were to the
elderly, the infirm; lucky 7 still said all
but necessary travel was verboten

9 was malign enough for
the bug eyed masks, and even indoor tasks
were advised with caution

double digits meant doom,
stay in your room, with equal measures
of oxygen and prayer

outside if the scale
really read the ominous 10, fears were
of fire igniting in the skies

but some days were yet a 2,
when masses moved about enjoying
a respite from wrath

though 1 was remembered as if
a dream, with skies a strange hue, most
thought it was once called blue

plants, trees, were taxed without exemption,
mixing molecules, a chemical coughing in silence,
their belching of atoms, our salvation

and there were those who ventured
far enough into the fields who vouchsafed they
had yet seen daffodils, wilted but alive