The Quarantine Chronicles, Day 45

DAY 45: When the churches close

I don't give a care, pray at

home, get married next year

not the end of the world like dying is

ah, but funerals -- what happens to 
the corpus spiritus, our collective

psyche and emotional health

when there are no funerals, no send-offs,
when our dearest loved ones, spouses,

children, parents, best friends

beloved grandparents, aunts and

uncles disappear without a

trace, without the closure, the

formality of crying at a funeral
the unsatisfactory poetry
the memories drifting upwards
on the soul of the one you loved

the extended family going out

to lunch afterwards or all

gathering back in the living

room, glasses in hand -- if we have 
no endings, did we ever begin, did we

ever build relationships, did we

do good or be good? Johnny?

if we let people vanish

without a blip like in a 

horror film, apocalyptic blip

disappearances, kids, spouses

your very blip own blip dearly beloved

-- you won't find them by tracing
their cell phones, kidnapped

in an abandoned factory

tied to a folding chair, face covered

with a black cloth bag hiding fake blood

no, they just went abracadabra

poof! -- GONE, here today, hug

and love, celebrate and

cherish, because tomorrow --

silence, nothingness, poof, gone.