Take a fresh and humorous look at the 2020 Covid 19 Pandemic year that most of us want to forget. Gary Alexander has created poems to help us remember what we lived through and how our lives were changed forever. While these light-hearted poems make us laugh, they also record how we lived - our story to pass on to future generations. Alexander also opens a door to the past -- with a look at some humorous poems written during the dark days of the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. You can read with a smile the "Spanish Flu Poem of 1918" written by Joe Bogle, a black man from Louisville, Kentucky. Alexander dedicated this book to him. Today, we feel their fear, pain, and suffering, but we also share their uplifting spirit in the face of a worldwide disaster. There are striking similarities of our restricted lifestyles during our pandemic year with those living with the Spanish Flu outbreak just over one hundred years ago. Humor was a common bond, as Americans in two different centuries tried to cope with an out of control, and not fully understood, worldwide health scourge.
The year 2020 was a steady progression of bad news with growing virus infections and rising death tolls. The public health guidelines relied upon a series of steps to try limit the spread. Life became isolated, ("hunkered down"), businesses, travel, leisure activities, and the wide range of our "normal" lifestyle was restricted. Learning and the workplace became "virtual" and new words became commonplace like: "zoom", and "flattening the curve" and "herd immunity". All of this was superimposed on a stress filled, very partisan year-long Presidential election.
Alexander has captured it all in a collection of short, humorous, and penetrating poems with titles like:
"WHY IS TOILET PAPER SO HARD TO FIND?"
"LINE UP, LINE UP, IT'S FOR THE TEST!"
"MY WIFE'S A BARBER"
"WHO IS THIS GREAT GUY FAUCI?"
"I'VE LOST MY MASK!"
and many, more. They are an easy and fun read; but as you read, you