The widowed professor’s new purpose

His lectures that he likes best
Usually concern Camus.
Each year, he does La Peste,
Which wasn’t always true.

“A parable to be read
By a world itself absurd:
First rats, then people, dead . . .
The cause is never cured . . .

“Despair comes in, even seems
To push the envelope
Hard. But the book’s deep themes
Are human love and hope

“And how these things endure
Amid death’s ravages—
Or may.”
                     He’s growing sure
It matters what he says.