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# How to Prepare for a Coup in a Pandemic
- URL: https://www.andyposner.org/how-to-prepare-for-a-coup-in-a-pandemic/
- Published: 2021-01-10T21:23:51.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-14T05:46:56.000Z
- Description: Sometimes, taking a break from the news and work, I’ll spot the collected works of this or that poet and, for a moment, have context for despair.
- Author: Andy
- Tags: Be The Change, poetry

My stockpile is such that  
when I open a closet I brace  
for an avalanche of toilet paper.

In the kitchen are enough cans of beans  
to last a months-long struggle, for my son  
to pass the hours building steel pyramids.

I’ve strewn fat books of poetry around the house  
like a Beagle hiding bones to find delight in the  
mundane and comfort when there’s nothing else to do.

Sometimes, taking a break from the news and work,  
I’ll spot the collected works of this or that poet  
and, for a moment, have context for despair.

I’m talking to my son now. I want you to know  
that I wore a mask, that I quarantined, and protested,  
and wrote things that failed to stop the death and

suffering of this horrible age, that if we manage to  
survive, a time will come when my poems,  
gathering dust, just might keep you alive.