Sky Falling on Formosa

See live recitation here.

loving my strawberry crunch pie pop
as mask-less children and joggers romp
all alone i stare at ghosts
that pepper pages of Facebook hosts
wafting in corona breeze
spitting out pieces of American sleaze 
far from Formosa if you please

with time enough at last to read
with Henry Bemis what i need
with no class affronting education
on an apocalyptic vacation 
the last man standing with glasses intact
no needless worry or falsified fact
on literate Formosa avoiding flack

i am the little red hen who has baked her bread
alone in my kitchen with everyone dead
dead wrong about not helping me bake
home quarantined; can't go to their wake
ain't done nothing if you ain't been called a red
i don't let the meltdown go to my head
as a faithful expat in Formosa instead 

i am the pied piper that called the tune
for those who wait in emergency rooms
i have lured out and removed American bats
and led them away from my beautiful cats
to get me back there would be hell to pay
here is where i want to stay
on the pesticide of a Formosa day

i am Tommy in my happy holiday camp
playing pinball through a world gone damp
knowing you won't follow me any way you go
on the amazing journey to learn all i can know
on a double score from Uncle Ernie's lair
all i can do is shake my head and stare
glad to be alive with Formosa universal care

i am Goosey Loosey and they are Henny Penny
the sky is falling on one too many
i live on an island near some ants red
in a winter of famine watching grasshoppers led
for face masks, testers and ventilator men 
blaming China and WHO on CNN
The fruitful Formosan chorus joining in

in this fairy tale's nightmare i have seen
a healthy rivalry in a dream 
like the jealous sibling Taiwan repels
distancing itself from its cohort too well
Will America's sky for Foxy Woxy fall
in a slit-eyed adventure missing the call
Let Taiwan be Formosa once and for all  

April 18, 2020
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