From the Anthology 

Black Women Coping in Cleveland

#Fake Crisis

by Dr. Mary Weems

White woman wants us to open wide

like a door

let commerce run

a river she believes will be the color of mud, sky

everything swimming within.

Her sign white, with black letters repeats what President

has repeated

a chant that lies in rhythm

that pretends thousands aren’t dying

his name not the last thing they say, but

They believe the virus Is a hoax

They believe it started in China

They believe enough tests are available

They believe

Plandemic

a fake documentary film that claims

that masks cause the virus.

Is this why

I look out my window and see none of my neighbors

bother to wear them

as if Trump is a medical doctor

as if Trump is telling the truth

as if hundreds of people aren’t dying

From Covid 19 daily.

Author Bio

Dr. Mary E. Weems' is a poet, playwright, author, imagination-intellect theorist, and cultural foundations scholar. Weems’ earned her B.A. and M.A. from Cleveland State University and her Ph.D. in Education from the University of Illinois @ Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Weems is the author of thirteen books including Blackeyed: Plays and Monologues and Writings of Healing and Resistance: Empathy and the Imagination-Intellect, five chapbooks, and numerous poems, articles and book chapters. In 2015, Weems’ was awarded a Cleveland Arts Prize, and both of her poetry books An Unmistakable Shade of Red and the Obama Chronicles, and For(e)closure, were finalists for Ohioana Book Awards. Weems has also been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her fourteenth book Still Hanging: Using Performance Texts to Deconstruct Racism which she co-authored with Dr. Bryant Alexander, is forthcoming from Brill/Sense Press in the Spring of 2021. To purchase Dr. Weems books, leave her a message, and/or get updates on current projects please visit her website at www.maryeweems.org