The A1 Verse: The herd shot round the world

Every so often, a story published on the front page of the New York Times is so well written, meaningful, and appropriate to the Bulletin’s concerns that small snippets of it, properly chosen and arranged, produce something more than journalism, something that approaches … poetry. That blessed coincidence occurred May 3, 2021.

We suspect it’ll occur again.

‘HERD IMMUNITY’ DIMS WITH PACE OF VACCINATIONS

(from the original by Apoorva Mandavilli)

Just a glimmer,
not attainable,
not foreseeable,
not ever.

Instead:

The conclusion
that will circulate
the United States’
imagination—

“Why bother.”

To the skeptic,
a controllable,
never mystical
classic:

“Forget that.”