Typewriter Rodeo: A Deviant Variant Indeed

Each week, the Standard reaches out to Austin’s Typewriter Rodeo for a custom poem on Texas topics.

By David FruchterJanuary 28, 2022 9:45 am, ,

The omicron variant of COVID-19 is highly contagious and has caused a huge spike in case numbers. That was the inspiration of this Typewriter Rodeo poem.

A Deviant Variant Indeed

my little omie, my omie cron
you’re so promiscuous, spread hither and yon

mouth to mouth, nose to nose
barely caring who you chose

to get with next, invade, infect
in fact, i’m beginning to suspect

that one mucus membrane’s the same as another
to this virus that calls our very cells mother

each nasal tract a new abode
a place to drop its viral load

so i vax up, to try to protect me
hoping that the big C-19 won’t select me

and i mask up, so i’ll protect you
in case all unknowing i’ve caught a case too

cuz this virus is nasty, in effect and in action
it doesn’t care where it achieves satisfaction

so let’s be, to the greatest degree, inhospitable
and prove this damn thing, though it’s sly,

still outwittable

a photo of the typewritten poem on a torn piece of yellow paper

typewriter rodeo logoTypewriter Rodeo airs each Friday on Texas Standard. Send us your ideas for a poem on FacebookTwitter, or send us an email.

Typewriter Rodeo is also available anytime in podcast form.

If you found the reporting above valuable, please consider making a donation to support it here. Your gift helps pay for everything you find on texasstandard.org and KUT.org. Thanks for donating today.