Pirates

Attacked and boarded

I had Covid.  Just recently came out of quarantine, as a matter of.  It feels like I still have it, though, in some ways.  I have no sense of taste or smell.  I have a lingering bad cough in my upper lungs. I had a hard time sleeping last night because of it.   Will that go away?  Who knows.

            Getting Covid felt like I was a freighter being taken over by Somali pirates.  This little boat came out of nowhere and three or four pirates boarded this massive ship and took it over. The ship, my body, was now controlled by minuscule life—is a virus alive?—whose purpose seems unknown except to debilitate said body and impair its functions.  Yes, I was vaccinated, but that didn’t stop the pirates. They boarded the ship and they took control. I couldn’t repel them.  My body couldn’t. 

            It feels strange to have this thing occupying me.  I had gone the entire Covid lockdown year without getting it.  Then I traveled, and got it.  Yes, I masked.  But when among those who had been vaccinated, I did not.  But that, as I know so well, did not mean they didn’t have it. And could transmit it.

            Lesson learned?  That this body of mine is wondrous and vulnerable.  That so many others have had their bodies invaded and taken over by foreign players watching helpless as those players have had their way.  It’s all very humbling.