Are you shaking off the last vestiges of cold and flu season? Or perhaps your coworkers are, and you participate by offering a word of acknowledgment and recognition in the face of their nasal suffering.
Bless You
It is the season
for sneezin’
What with the flu
and the colds
and the allergies
cedar fever;
And while this implies
much in the way of decongestants
and tissues, antihistamines
and inhalers
It also, maybe mostly, means reckoning with
the social awkwardness
of the Post Sneeze Response
Because when your colleague’s face
Has just exploded at 97 mph
You feel an obligation to respond
A simple Bless You
or Salud
or Gehzundheit
and then, back to work
But here in the thick of Sneezin Season
Some of our sinuses like to do a 5-sneeze-splosion
Which leaves a polite coworker confounded
Sneeze — Bless You
Sneeze — Bless You!
Sneeze — Bless You…
Sneeze — ….okay look can we just
consider you fully blessed
for today?
…..sneeze…
(okay fine bless you)
Produced by Laura Rice
