Living alone
by Aidan Zingler
Living in a pandemic while living alone
splinters my mind, breaks me down
pain ignites and drenches my soul
an endless kaleidoscope nightmare
again and again my body crushed
against the shoals of silence.
A slice of the sun burns my eyes
Buzz of machine howls in my ears
Cold gust of air raises goosebumps
Swirl it all up in the Emergency D
Words spill from lips too fast
Eddies and rapids that don’t last.
Sliced away and bundled up home
Pill bottles, pain, and reading tomes
text dances on screen but not heard
people laugh outside but not seen
melting away into the cracks of time
my light sputters and fails to shine
hope weeps to be so unheard
those ill have been so spurned
Those with family are surrounded
while those alone are drowning.
where is the community?
where is the compassion?
why is there only silence
as I fall between the cracks
my mind and senses sapped
until I fade into depths of time.
Mourning
Call it what it is.
casual normalization of death
for the poor, the marginalized,
Sacrificed on the altar of capitalism.
Where is the collective mourning?
100,000 dead and rising
The powers that be and journalists
TV anchors and elected officials
Sound off with silence
for the 100,000 dead and rising
We should mourn. We will mourn. We must.
The dead weeps to be so unheard
the ill shatter to be so spurned
where is the compassion?
who will hear the cries of our lost?
We should mourn. We will mourn. We must.
Those in power laugh gleefully
as their profits skyrocket
billionaires, trillionaires
growing hoards in a pandemic
Justice howls its forlorn song
the compassion for humanity
lost in reopening economy
100,000 dead and rising
normalized, desensitizes
100,000 dead and rising
who will hear their stories?
who will honor their memory?
We should mourn. We will mourn. We must.
Reshaping Reality 