#pov first person

we’re out of the opening montage now
but this is still an apocalypse movie.
we’ve switched genres:
action to drama, exciting to dark.

this film will not be playing in all theaters.

the opening montage is over now:
this is the slow grind
of not quite rising action.
the camera slows down, pans

wide angles of aimlessness
interspersed with sudden

jumps in focus.

zoom in, now. let the music fade.
adjust the lights.
they should be harsher, sharper
as real and rasping as sandpaper.
as loud as a ventilator’s wheeze.

emphasize the gritty reality of it all:
this is the new normal.
do not comment on the societal changes.
let them speak for themselves:

the casual mask hooked over the gearshift handle,
the shuffling bored awkwardness of space stretching out a line,
the routine airlock protocols and pause
of a dasher leaving food,
of a customer picking it up.

pause here, with children playing covid.
let the viewer marvel

at the human ability to adapt.

linger a moment longer,
one breath, then another, then

flash to one deathbed after another
each ventilator blurring into the next
sheets pulled up over faces
while tweet after tweet plays

the government can’t - unconstitutional -
do your own research - make your own decision -
respect my choice - my beliefs - my rights

zoom in on a twitter profile.

they call themselves pro-life.