Negation # 19 by Alistair McCartney
Medium: aesthetic distancing, epidemiology
John Keats did not die from the Coronavirus.
Grammatically speaking, one does not
Die from the virus:
As a direct cause of death,
One dies of it.
One dies from an indirect agent, for example,
He died from falling down the Spanish Steps.
John Keats never entered the Prada store
Near the Spanish Steps.
Though epidemiologically speaking, in terms
Of viruses and the blurriness
Of direct/indirect causes,
I may be on shaky territory.
It has become abundantly clear that
We are all on territory that is shaking.
At the time of writing,
Due to the Coronavirus, the Prada Store
Near the Spanish Steps
Is not open for business.
Prada is not considered an essential business.
Although we like to say otherwise,
Poetry is not essential to existence.
One does not die of or from lack of poetry,
Which, as a linguistic agent
Works both directly and indirectly
On the reader’s nervous system.
To the best of my knowledge,
John Keats never wrote a poem
Ode to COVID-19: Masks, Mysteries, and More.
Nor has Prada released a cologne called
Negative Capability # 19.
And John Keats did not die
From or of or due to or by or
Because of the Coronavirus.
Prada – Prada = 0.
0 = Keats – Keats.
*
Alistair McCartney is the author of two genre-blurring novels The Disintegrations (2017) and The End of the World Book (2008), both published with University of Wisconsin Press. The Disintegrations is the winner of The Publishing Triangle’s Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBTQ Fiction. TEOTWB was a finalist for the PEN USA Fiction Award and the Publishing Triangle’s Edmund White debut fiction award. His poetry and cross-genre writing has appeared in journals such as Hotel Literary Magazine, 3:AM, Fence, Vestiges, Nat.Brut and Bloom. He is currently working on two conceptual books of poetry and hybrid texts. Originally from Australia, he lives in Los Angeles, where he teaches in Antioch University’s MFA program, and directs their undergraduate creative writing concentration.
