COVID Haiflu and Corona Sonnets

Personal Note: I just got boosted yesterday at Youngsan, so far minimal reaction.
I had to get tested before and after traveling to the States in November. So far, five COVID tests are all negative. I got the J and J shot last March, and am finally getting the booster shot. For my friends who are not yet vaccinated or boosted, what are you waiting for? You don’t want to risk getting COVID or spreading it as the former President did. So, get your shot now and tell them Cosmos sent yah. You may thank me later.
I have been writing COVID poems ever since the pandemic struck. Several have been published. Two interesting new poetic forms have emerged, the COVID Sonnet and the Haiflu. I have collected here some of my COVID-themed poems for your enjoyment.
Note: A haifu is a haiku/senryu about some aspect of the Corona pandemic in traditional 5 7 7 format.
A Corona Sonnet is a 14 line poem either in traditional sonnet form or free verse form. The poem is infected with two to four lines from another poem or writing that infects the poem. The poet notes that as a author note under Contact tracing.
The last lines contain increasingly socially distant phases all in All CAPS.
Corona Virus Poems Published
more corona poems published
Corona Ghosts
coronavirus revised
Corona Virus is Not God’s Punishment
Christian Right on Corona
Index
Ten Winter Senryu
Winter is coming
The COVID virus
Winter is coming
2022 looms
2021
Dreading the winter
Winter depression
The winter Starting
Wintertime for blues
Wintertime Sadness
Winter beginning
COVID Haibun
Corona Sonnets
Plane, Train or Automobile – none of us can escape our fate
Cosmic Debris Corona sonnet 2
Corona Consumes Me Corona Sonnet 3
General Corona Poems
General Corona Leads His Troops into Battle, the crown of sonnets
General Corona is coming for us all
General Corona is Happy
God Deals with Corona
Failed Haiku Publishes my Haiflu poem
Failed Haiku will publish one of my Winter Senryu poems about Covid in their next issue dropping soon.
“Dreading the winter
Dreading more COVID
Dreading more Corona Ghosts”
The winter issue will be published on New Year’s Day.
Wishing you a beautiful holiday season,
Kelly
On Fri, Dec 10, 2021 at 7:19 PM authorjakecosmosaller@gmail.com <authorjakecosmosaller@gmail.com> wrote:
Kelly
Thanks so much you made my day. When will this be published? I always promote my publications on my web page and social media accounts.
Thanks again
Jake Cosmos Aller
Dear Bryan Rickert and Kelly Sauvage – ‘Failed’ Editors – Mike Rehling Founder.
I read your essays on what is a Senryu and think that these qualify as “winter Senryu/Haiku. Many of them would also be Haiflu which I discovered last year – haiku-like poems about COVID.
I separated each poem by three *** for easier formating and on separate pages. My standard cover letter with contact info follows the submission.
Ten Winter Senryu
Winter is coming
The cold season approaching
Christmas around the corner
The COVID virus
Surging everywhere it seems
Winter of our discontent
Winter is coming
2022 looms
Goodbye 2021
2021
Fading into memory
Good riddance we all proclaim
Dreading the winter
Dreading more COVID
Dreading more Corona Ghosts
Winter depression
COVID fears re-emerging
Still more travel restrictions
The winter starting
With so many ghosts
Crying in the wind
Wintertime for blues
Blues playing on my YouTube
Seeing Corona Ghosts Dancing
Wintertime sadness
Recalling all who have gone
In this dismal year now past
Winter beginning
Are the end times coming?
Are revelations coming true?
COVID Testing Negative Haibun

I have written numerous Corona poems since the pandemic hit. One of my favorite COVID characters is General Corona, He came to me in a vision after watching the former guy droned on about battling an invisible army, I figured every army, even a virus army, had to have a commanding general. I imagined him as a huge figure riding the black horse of pestilence from revelations and the virus army as imperial stormtroopers looking for the unvaccinated, unmasked victims to infect with ray guns that spread the virus about, this one is sort of a haibun poem based on my getting a COVID test for travel the other day.
I had to get a COVID test
To get on a plane
Anxiety filled my mind
As I waited to take the test
I was filled with anxiety
Then I got the results.
“COVID Negative
Cleared for International travel”
Anxiety fades away
Everything is fine
The world resumes
I defeated COVID
For now,.
I had to get a COVID test for my upcoming return to the States, flying to DC for three weeks on the 15th. US is requiring a negative PRT COVID test conducted within 72 hours of departure. (now it is a 24 before your flight rule) You can get it done at a health center but it would cost 100 dollars and results take 24 to 48 hours. Fortunately, the US army at Camp Humphreys had their act together. Took less than an hour to do the test which was not too invasive a procedure and to get the needed “COVID Negative, Cleared for International Travel” certificate.
We have to do the same thing upon our return,but getting a test site in the U.S. was a bit difficult as it was hard to find a place that would guarantee results in time for your flight, but we found a lab that guaranteed 24-hour returns for a price.
And we had to do two COVID tests upon return to Korea, fortunately, both were negative. I am getting my booster shot tomorrow.
Word to the wise, if you are traveling to the US and returning, make sure you get your re-entry permit on time, and your COVID tests were done on time. You may have to call around to get a place that gets results back in time. It may be difficult to met the 24 hour prior to travel rule as well, but fortunately the rapid testing tests are acceptable for now.
Corona Sonnets
General Corona is Coming for Us All
( Corona Sonnet )

“I saw the best minds of my generation
Destroyed by madness”
Consumed by the greed
All around us
The dreaded coronavirus spreads
Its death and destruction
All over the world
No one can escape
THE FATE OF THE WORLD
IS INDEED AT STAKE
NONE OF US CAN
ESCAPE
OUR
FATE
content tracing “Howl” by Allen Ginsberg
Cosmic Debris Corona sonnet 2

I received a mysterious email package
Followed by a phone call offering me a magical mask
a mask that they claim would prevent me
from the dreaded General Corona.
Hey there
Who you are jiving with that cosmic debris
a mask that they did not want me
me to know about.
TOP SECRET CODE 2 LEVEL STUFF
MUST ACT NOW
SEND MONEY ASAP
BUY
IT
NOW
# Content tracing- “Cosmic Debris by Frank Zappa”
with apologies to Frank Zappa
Corona Consumes Me Corona Sonnet 3

I am consumed by the coronavirus
And I am slowly being taken over
As the virus infects my mind,
taking me, overturning me
into a wild raving zombie man
Let there be light.
will I become the first
ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE LOOMS
WILL WE ALL DIE
CORONA
KILLS
ME.
Content tracing – Let there be light from Bible and the entire Zombie Apocalypse genre where the Zombie flu started usually in China as the flu, and then morphs into the zombie disease.
General Corona Poems
General Corona Leads His Troops into Battle, the crown of sonnets
General Corona leads
his forces across the world
riding on a black horse
From out of the Apocalypse
Ride the four horsemen
Which are let loose upon the world
He leads his forces across the world
into battle as the leader of his evil forces
The enemy of humanity
General Corona, does not care
Nor does his virus minions care
About your nationality, he does not care
About your politics, he does not care
Or your wealth or who you are
For all you are nothing but humanity
The corona general sees humanity
The corona general sees humanity
As nothing but hosts for his virus army
As nothing but hosts for his virus army
Chanting death to humanity
Until his evil army
Sweeps throughout the world
Throughout the world
And millions must die
Tt is the will of the General all must die
And it is the end of the world
Or the beginning of a new world
Filled with hope and love throughout the world
Humanity comes alive throughout the world
Fighting back against the virus army
Peace, love, and compassion defeats the army
And general corona will finally himself die
General Corona is Happy

General Corona
is happy.
His mission is a great success.
As his armies of virus bots
Spread throughout the world
Spreading chaos and destruction.
As all bow down
To his invisible armies.
None can escape their fate
On that date
That he unleashed his armies
Upon the world.
All humans must die
His armies scream out.
Plane, Train or Automobile – none of us can escape our fate

In these dark and dire times
We find ourselves living
We often fear that the times
Are infected with death.
And so, we are afraid
Deathly afraid
That if we take a plane
We will find General Corona
Among the passengers.
And we are afraid
Deadly afraid
That the subways
Are incubators
Of death and destruction.
The virus spreads
Fear and death
In its wake.
Many of us
Retreating to our homes
and venturing out
In our cars.
only to find
Death is stalking us
As traffic piles up.
Traffic accidents
Sill killing more people
Than the dreaded General Corona.
The grim reaper smiles
His work is done.
God Deals with Corona
God is having a crisis meeting
On the coronavirus situation
On planet 679542099199
Otherwise known as planet earth
In a minor corner
Of the milky way.
the deranged inhabitants
of the planet
somehow thought that GOD
created them in his image
and that they are his children
all of them.
and that he listens to his prayers
God was so tired of dealing with humans
the orneriest stubborn stupid creatures
of all the millions of sentient beings
he had to deal with them
more than anyone else.
God created the world
But then let nature take its course
and sometimes things worked out
and sometimes they did not.
and God just did not have the time
to deal with every little detail
of life on millions of planets
across the vast universe.
His arch enemy Satan
banished to Hell’s prison
was always causing trouble,
everywhere in the universe
and Satan also loved the mad
creatures on planet earth.
what was God to do
he did not know
as he saw the death rates
increase and grim reaper’s
armies go to work
his courts will be filled
billions stuck in limbo
for centuries
just did not have enough
staff to do the work
God signed off the conference
and sighed again
thinking about the mad creatures
on the planet earth
hoping that they would pull it together
but knowing that he might have to intervene
and went back to his other business
enough of humans for one day