This piece has just been published by Culture Matters. https://www.culturematters.org.uk/index.php/arts/poetry/item/4702-what-rough-beast

Rufus Hornblower,
the ‘it’s only the flu’,
‘it’s your sovereign right not to wear a mask’,
‘vaccination’s a plot’ guy,
DJT’s favorite shock jock,
woke up on a hospital trolley in a warehouse.
He’d gone to ER.
Severe breathing difficulties.
A doctor wearing full PPE observed him closely,
taking copious notes.
‘Ah, Mr. Hornblower, you’re back with us; are you feeling better?
‘No, I’m getting worse by the minute,
maybe even dying from that plague thing,
so why aren’t you giving me any treatment?’
‘Oh, Mr. Hornblower,
you can’t die from an imaginary disease,
so we’re moving you to the big circus tent we’ve set up
behind the hospital,
or as we call it,
the Centre for Observing Victims of Imaginary Diseases,
or COVID for short.
You’ll enjoy your time there,
what with the clown school,
the acrobats teaching backflips,
tightrope walking lessons
and, of course, lyin’ taming.’