We are tired; we are overworked
We are battling the holiday surge
While you shop, dine, travel,
party and, otherwise, splurge

Little was known about the virus in wave I
But, that’s no longer the case in wave III
We know what to do to halt Covid-19 spread
This is a fact, to which you can’t disagree

Our workplace is a war zone
Except, we do not have the right gear
Will you send US army to fight a war
with just “a wing and a prayer”?

Where is the leadership?  AWOL?
They need to take a lesson from WWII
The whole country was mobilized,
marching in unison through and through

To our tone deaf hypocritic politicians,
shame on you for your duplicity
You act in violation of your own orders
You should drown in your own complicity

We have been thrown to the “wolves”
Many of our colleagues have died while serving
We too are front-line soldiers, just a different war
Why do you treat us as less deserving?

Where is the respect accorded to fallen soldiers?
No flag draped coffins or military honors for us
We give our lives without anyone noticing or caring
Just mere casualties in war against the virus

Our “front line” is equally deadly
Unlike a conventional war, our foe is invisible
Army soldiers’ job is to attack their enemy to kill
Ours is to attack to save, no matter how impossible

More people are dying on a daily basis
than those who were killed on 9/11
Where is the moral outrage now?
Your cavalier attitude cannot be forgiven

You say you have a right to not wear a mask
With rights come responsibilities
You owe it to your fellow countrymen
You cannot discard your civic sensibilities

You say you are suffering from Covid-19 fatigue
Let us show you what fatigue is really like
Working double shifts day in and day out
Weekdays or weekends, no respite

I challenge you to walk in our shoes
Just for one day, spend time in an ICU
You will see misery and death all around
May be one of the dying was infected by you!

We are at the receiving end of your profligacy
While you flaunt all the public health norms
We end up paying the price and taking the risk
Tending to patients arriving like category V storms

Many of the people dying need not have died
Only if you had obeyed public health directives
With vaccinations underway, only few more months
of masking and distancing are the needed prescriptives

Thousands more will meet their maker pre-maturely
Many dying in isolation with no loved ones present
We can only do so much; we are only human
We are stuck in the rut, no matter how much we resent

For you, it is all about “me”, ”me”,  “me”
A healthy society depends on collective “we”
Yes, you have a right to live “free”; but
“live and let live” is a collective decree

You are forcing us to decide who lives who dies
We must ration care since beds are filling up
despite working multiple shifts, we are short in staffing
If we can’t tend to them, bodies will keep piling up

Ambulances are having to circle hospitals for hours
Looking for one without a wait that is undue
Likely the patient may not survive all this delay
Think, what if the patient in the ambulance was you?

This too shall pass, it always does
Though bad memories will linger
Sights of body bags in refrigerated trucks,
people gasping for breath, sure to be PTSD harbinger.

Shame on you for your
… selfishness
… callousness
… lack of self-control
… willful flaunting of the rules

Shame on the leaders and politicians for their
— cowardice
— callousness
— double speak (not walking the talk)
— dangerous rhetoric

God save the medical worker!