Dickinsonday 4: (591)

I heard a Fly buzz - when I died -
The Stillness in the Room
Was like the Stillness in the Air -
Between the Heaves of Storm -

The Eyes around - had wrung them dry -
And Breaths were gathering firm
For that last Onset - when the King
Be witnessed - in the Room -

I willed my Keepsakes - Signed away
What portion of me be
Assignable - and then it was
There interposed a Fly -

With Blue - uncertain - stumbling Buzz -
Between the light - and me -
And then the Windows failed - and then
I could not see to see -


also: "A lesson in self-isolation from 'the queen of quarantine'"

The Plague Ravages the City / La peste azota a los mexicas

“While the Spaniards were in Tlaxcala, a great plague broke out here in Tenochtitlan. It began to spread during the thirteenth month and lasted for seventy days, striking every where in the city and killing a vast number of our people. Sores erupted on our faces, our breasts, our bellies; we were covered with agonizing sores from head to foot.

“The illness was so dreadful that no one could walk or move. The sick were so utterly helpless that they could only lie on their beds like corpses, unable to move their limbs or even their heads. They could not lie face down or roll from one side to the other. If they did move their bodies, they screamed with pain.

“A great many died from this plague, and many others died of hunger. They could not get up to search for food, and everyone else was too sick to care for them, so they starved to death in their beds.

“Some people came down with a milder form of the disease; they suffered less than the others and made a good recovery. But they could not escape entirely. Their looks were ravaged, for wherever a sore broke out, it gouged an ugly pockmark in the skin. And a few of the survivors were left completely blind.

“The first cases were reported in Cuatlan. By the time the danger was recognized, the plague was so well established that nothing could halt it, and eventually it spread all the way to Chalco. Then its virulence diminished considerably, though there were isolated cases for many months after. The first victims were stricken during the fiesta of Teotlecco and the faces of our warriors were not clean and free of sores until the fiesta of Panquetzaliztli.”

“Cuando se fueron los españoles de México y aún no se preparaban los españoles contra nosotros, primero se difundió entre nosotros una gran peste, una enfermedad general. Comenzó en Tepeílhuitl. Sobre nosotros se extendió: gran destruidora de gente. Algunos bien los cubrió, por todas partes de su cuerpo se extendió.

“En la cara, en la cabeza, en el pecho. Era muy destructora enfermedad. Muchas gentes murieron de ella. Ya nadie podía andar, no más estaban acostados, tendidos en su cama. No podía nadie moverse, no podía volver el cuello, no podía hacer movimientos de cuerpo; no podía acostarse cara abajo, ni acostarse sobre la espalda, ni moverse de un lado a otro. Y cuando se movían algo, daban de gritos. A muchos dio la muerte la pegajosa, apelmazada, dura enfermedad de granos.

“Muchos murieron de ella, pero muchos solamente de hambre murieron: hubo muertos por el hambre: ya nadie tenía cuidado de nadie, nadie de otros se preocupaba.

“A algunos les prendieron los granos de lejos: esos no mucho sufrieron, no murieron muchos de eso.

“Pero a muchos con esto se les echó a perder la cara, quedaron cacarañados, quedaron cacarizos. Unos quedaron ciegos, perdieron la vista.

“El tiempo que estuvo en fuerza esta peste duró sesenta días, sesenta días funestos. Comenzó en Cuatlan: cuando se dieron cuenta, estaba bien desarrollada. Hacia Chalco se fue la peste. Y con esto mucho amenguó, pero no cesó del todo.  Vino a establecerse en la fiesta de Teotleco y vino a tener su término en la fiesta de Panquetzaliztli. Fue cuando quedaron limpios de la cara los guerreros mexicanos.”

from The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico / Vision de los vencidos: Relaciones indígenas de la conquista

(Miguel León-Portilla)

related: the plague in Athens

Dickinsonday 3: (844)

Spring is the Period
Express from God.
Among the other seasons
Himself abide,

But during March and April
None stir abroad
Without a cordial interview
With God.

Dickinsonday 2: (202)

“Faith” is a fine invention
For Gentlemen who see!
But Microscopes are prudent
In an Emergency!

"God is a virus."

"God is everything, then. God is a virus. Believe that, when you get a cold. God is an ant. Believe that, too, for driver ants are possessed, collectively, of the size and influence of a Biblical plague.
. . .
"I was boggled by the array of creatures equipped to take root upon a human body. I'm boggled still, but with a finer appreciation for the partnership. Back then I was still a bit appalled that God would set down his barefoot boy and girl dollies into an Eden where, presumably, He had just turned loose elephantiasis and microbes that eat the human cornea. Now I understand, God is not just rooting for the dollies. We and our vermin all blossomed together.
. . .
"Five million years is a long partnership. If you could for a moment rise up out of your own beloved skin and appraise ant, human, and virus as equally resourceful beings, you might admire the accord they have all struck.
. . .
"Back in your skin, of course, you'll shriek for a cure. But remember: air travel, roads, cities, prostitution, the congregation of people for efficient commerce-these are gifts of godspeed to the virus."

--Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible (1998)

Dickinsonday 1: (236)

Some keep the Sabbath going to Church –
I keep it, staying at Home –
With a Bobolink for a Chorister –
And an Orchard, for a Dome –

Some keep the Sabbath in Surplice –
I, just wear my Wings –
And instead of tolling the Bell, for Church,
Our little Sexton – sings.

God preaches, a noted Clergyman –
And the sermon is never long,
So instead of getting to Heaven, at last –
I’m going, all along.


--Emily Dickinson, 1864