The Collected Writings of Brian J. Mueller
A single poem, met at the right moment, can change a life.
Search and read all 1,834 pieces by Brian J. Mueller — 1,675 poems, 38 prose pieces, and 121 haiku from 12 published volumes. Free to read and share.
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Browse the Twelve Volumes
Brian’s collected pieces, volume by volume.
The Virus
...takes on many shapes.
Oran,
Wuhan,
New York
or Dayton...
Did the virus originate
in only one place and time?
The mind says yes,
but the heart knows better.
Plague is an old story,
written into the fossil record,
coded into our DNA,
whispered like a rumor
passed from tree to tree
by the slow breeze
needing to exhale.
A fungus killed the Gros Michel banana.
Dutch elm disease wiped out forests.
And now the Emerald Ash borer
feeds its away across the land.
Covid-19 reminds us
suffering is the pandemic.