Vital Force
Conjured with fierceness
Love
Superstitions
Mast cells enter my blood
And surface through my capillaries.
I always plan to survive which drives
my inner heat outward
Fear becomes an immune response
the way fire eats fuel and oxygen
It feeds me and I make
anti-viral support formulas
And lung tonics
While repeating wild prayers
to the Archangel Michael
In Italian
As I sew red thread through cloves of garlic.
We have always been here in this moment
and all of the moments before this
And all that are to come.
My great-grandmother did this when she first came here and longed for home
Instructing her children to wear them around their necks at school
Same as her mother told her.
It’s how we talk to viruses
and tell them they have gone far enough
It’s how we set boundaries
It’s how we know who we are
I’ve given these to all my loved ones too
My son says he probably won’t wear it
I tell him that all of his ancestors survived because of this
Plague after plague
I call that evidence based science
More importantly it leads to love
Which cures everything that fear does not
Tucking garlic in your bra tells God you want to live
It tells God you still love it here
It tells God you will not go down easy.
I will not go down easy.
I went to the grocery store despite it all
Not wanting to be an alarmist
I didn’t buy everything
I messaged my friend and told her
The only thing I can think of to stock up on is chocolate
She texted back “and coffee”
We’re waiting for our first cases here and
no one has shut the door to stop it.
The store was full of elders, as is our community
I bumped into my dear old uncle
He has a light in his eyes that always sparkles like my grandfather’s did
We were so happy to see each other
And I thought
There is no such thing as “just the elderly are being affected”
Somewhere between this is “just a cold”
Or “it’s like the flu”
And outright panic
Something doesn’t add up
I check on cousins in countries on lock down
I trust all of the microbial organisms that live along my respiratory tract
And not the news media
I take vitamin C
And plan online classes
I love as many old people as I can
I throw my air signs at the fire
I conjure
a vital force.