I started writing this at the peak of the third wave in 2021, when everyday brought with it the name of someone no longer with us.
We have lost
My mother writes the names
of everyone who’s passed
on since last year
These times are the strangest
to now; lists to aid mourning
more deaths than grocery trips
Our friends are losing their parents
our parents are losing their friends
we are losing our friends
What to say to make it less?
soundless nothing words
sepulchre for a throat
There is no getting used to grief
in compound form loss
upon loss without pause
But here we are. What to pray for?
Can you still? Breathe in a time of fettered air
enough to write out our lists of love
