This is a rerun from last summer. It seems appropriate to publish again as the fourth wave crescendos. It has been updated for this year.

“Someone had blundered:
Theirs not to make reply
Theirs not to reason why
Theirs but to do and die.”
—Alfred Lord Tennyson

Three million! Three million
Teachers in play
As the Delta variant works through
Our states today.
Schools must reopen
Governors have thundered
Ignoring the data, the scientists,
Because people must work.
But teachers and staff have not wondered (that)
Someone had blundered:
 
Fearmongerers all, or so
Anti-vaxxers did mock
As they echo social media
Disinformation talk.
Forward, then, the teacher brigade!
Though the future you cannot scry
Safety your concern
But your masks a muzzle
Fearful are your children, but fie!
Theirs not to make reply
 
Onward and open!
Forward, Teacher Brigade!
Into a mess you have not made
Bow down to the anti-mask crowd
Vulgar, angry and very loud
Ignore the data, the positivity rate
And the unvaccinated's fate
People must work, the economy calls.
But what of their children’s lives?
Theirs not to reason why
 
About a virus that invades
The body’s organs.
An asymptomatic child
Nevertheless could end
With life-long health problems.
But with the school year nigh …
What of our teachers?
They must go back
Their voices despised,
Theirs but to do and die.