image generated by author using Midjourney
No autopsy is needed.
There was no airborne
virus, no plague.
The cause of death is clear.
The rope that curled
around our collective neck
was placed there by
our own
collective hands.
It was our pride,
our vanity, that
curled it around,
cinching tighter,
until we gasped
our last feeble breath.
About the Creator
Randy Baker
Poet, author, essayist.
My Vocal "Top Stories":
* The Breakers Motel * 7 * Holding On * Til Death Do Us Part * The Fisherman
Reader insights
Outstanding
Excellent work. Looking forward to reading more!
Top insights
Excellent storytelling
Original narrative & well developed characters
Eye opening
Niche topic & fresh perspectives
Heartfelt and relatable
The story invoked strong personal emotions
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Comments (11)
Wow, this is so raw and inexplicably powerful. 'The rope that curled around our collective neck was placed there by our own collective hands.' That was my absolute favourite part. So masterfully written. Utterly breathtaking Randy
But is anyone left to do the autopsy after the airborne thing. Hope that is was contained or we all are going down
Randy drops the mic and boom. There it is. Excellent poem, good sir. Very, very well done.
Wonderful job on the prompt, and quite relevant.
Very good awareness poem!
Excellent poem… seamlessly weaving in the five word prompts.✅
So powerful and thought provoking! Totally agreed with the irony of the bot comment as well!
Strong poem. Feels appropriate that it gets a bot advertisement comment - they feel like just another thread in the rope around our necks to me.
This seems a poetic prophecy likely to be fulfilled.
Yep, we have a tendency to do that to ourselves. GREAT writing.
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