My Jandek Plague Journal: 5/12/20 "Not Even Water"

"Not even water/Crossed my lips/I’m a gone, goner, goner/Hanging out to dry." And as soon as my quarantine moment starts, it's over. My colleague's test came back negative this morning so it's back to the office tomorrow. I can't even pretend to have suffered any dearth of comfort: I spent two lovely spring days inside reading comics, watching movies, and baking cookies. Along with the test results came the crumbling of the pretense of solidarity. My other colleagues sent the testee messages excoriating them for being insufficiently contrite about the situation. Sure, the testee was worried that they might have caught the plague, but did they even consider what that might do their colleagues' career prospects? As with so much of this pandemic, it's so absurd and grotesque that it has to be fabricated, but I watched the conversation play out live. This is reality now. -5/12/20. "Not Even Water" from Glasgow Sunday (lyrics) (one week earlier) (one week later)