Libby Sommer: ‘Hostilities’

Hostilities

I worry about the ones
who disbelieve in science,
the ones on social media
with no qualifications
but a good command
of gobbledygook,
and the one who said
she’d had enough of wimps like me.

Scientists observe and calculate,
study the risks,
wave us across
as we wait by the side of the road,
even though the science of pandemics
is incomplete.

It takes a lot of guts sometimes
with those who are close to us.
Relatives, old school friends, intimates …
Anti-vaxxers still find arguments
to fire at us. I think of Aristotle’s warning:
there is only one way
to avoid criticism—
do nothing, say nothing,
and be nothing.

Libby Sommer