In a Time of Plague

Tom Disch

It is time to dismantle this stage
   that represents the world;
we ought never to have let actors
   enter the city, with their songs

& long noses, making a joke
   even of our deaths. Take them,
those who have died with those
   still living. Dispose of them some way.

As for the rest of all this, the canvas
   will burn easily enough,
& the women's dresses. The building itself
   is fit to be a stable.