Coming Fast or Slow
I thought he’d come for me, uh huh,
Come fast you see
But Ebola too slow,
and that may be good, uh huh
No Ebola
No blast of vomit kissing my virgin eyeball, oh yuk
No lost chunks on my door knob tempting sticky fingers, you see
and flickering tongues, uh nah,
It’s the wrong hole for me, but any hole he likes, you see
I like the darkness in Ebola, his affection on me
The bad-boy fatality where water comes out like it comes in
He like depression, you see,
The pain is in the cure
True and simple
Death need not be complicated, uh huh
But living is
hard
you see after he
that bastard always hard
so hard on thee
No worries, there are other lovers lining up for me
I am hard to get you see, and they hardly ever hard on me
Changas came for me
such a boy was he
but a good Latin kisser, you see
Past lovers’ stomachs permanently in knots,
for life, they say
but not me,
so silly to be with he
and, yeah, there was Zika
He not for me but had me scared though
Not any more for my barren soul, uh nah
Not hiding out in any testes I know, you see
But I have a confession, uh huh
A regular undress’in, you see
I love chikungunya, uh huh
She’s so sweet on the tongue, oh yeah,
Makes me want to dance to chi-kun-gun-ya, yeah!
Come with her slow or with her fast
No matter if it feels fast and free with a hint of deadly in thee
Such a pretty dancer is she
A deadly-like and alluring bite
not a bad boy but a nasty she, you see
that one can wake up from
I was heartbroken then, you see,
and had this fling with Dengue,
but he be with nearly 400,000, 000 in a year,
and no longer with me
I feel shitty
but am free now, uh huh
No lover to contaminate my bloodstream, you see
but maybe that influenza,
who’s sometimes a girl and sometimes a boy
Doesn’t matter if it be a she or he when it feels fast and free with a hint of deadly in thee
more deadly the longer you dance with him,
or is it her?
I’ve got the chills now, you see.
COVID’s men kill ‘in millions, indeed;
Gonna lie down with me and my fantasy, uh huh
They come for us
be it fast or be it slow
We all have these lovers, you see
so, no worries now
go to sleep
and I
or he
or she
will come
and kiss thee . . .
Earl Yarington (LMSW) is a social worker and school bus driver. He taught literature and writing for nearly 20 years and spent 3 years working in forensic social work internships with offending populations, including work at Delaware Correctional facilities and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. He has a PhD in literature and criticism (feminism/women writers) from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Master of Social Work from Louisiana State University, and an interdisciplinary Master of Liberal Arts from Arizona State University, where he studied the impact of visual image and girlhood in media/social media. He also has an MA and BS in English from SUNY College at Brockport. The opinions and analyses that Earl writes are his own and are not necessarily the positions or views of his employers, the agencies he supports, or that of his colleagues. Reach out with comments or questions.