(On this Passover and Good Friday, many people are shopping for food here at Virus Ground Zero in Queens. The dangers that loom over their simple journeys to the grocery story feels like the time when the angel of death traveled through Egypt striking the first born children, sparing those who symbolized their turn to God with a streak of blood on their doorways. See Exodus 11-12 — editors note.)
In war, we wear masks to cover our faces.
Gloves to conceal our hands.
The enemy prowls about our block, our street in silence –
Tracking our movements around sharp corners.
Oh, angel of death – please spare our shopkeepers.
Our brothers, our sisters, fathers, mothers, friends and neighbors.
Oh, angel of death we haven’t the time to place the blood over our door posts.
We haven’t the time to prepare the sacrifice.
Rachel is wailing.
Her sirens ring in the morning and in the afternoon.
Her muffled cries grow ever closer as she races down Roosevelt Avenue, turning the corner onto Broadway.
Rachel is wailing.
The body count is stacked.
Angel of death, pass over us.
— at Queens Jackson Heights.
Erin Layton is a Queens based playwright, performer. Her award-winning one woman play, MAGDALEN about the Magdalene Laundries in Ireland has performed to sold out houses in NYC, venues and universities across the US as well as theatres in the UK for the past 8 years.
