I know where good America is,
but where is the mourning?
Where is the grief? I can't find it.
We cry from fear, sadness and anxiety,
but who's crying for the dead? Besides
relatives, who's mourning? Are our heart
flags lowered at half mast? Do we feel the
loss? 23,000, 18,000, 57,000, 103, 000 -- is
this a too many numbers game, that's all
we get from the news, and the occasional
famous person or distant relation passed
on, but where is the real numberless mourning
for one dead individual, each one, everyone who
was loved, who left a mark? slowly one by one.
I propose a worldwide moment of silence for each
one rising -- years and years of silent commemoration.
In the movies, where we've lived
through pandemics before and
we brave protagonists -- beautiful
clever, huge made-up faces and sprayed-down hair --
we survived at the last second
we -- hallelujah -- made it
though most of humanity died
oh well --
there's no mourning there either, just
kisses and credits -- in our nightmares, only
fear, of our own selfish death
being chased by the reaper, running in panic
-- but where's the mourning for
others? is this a narcissism joke?
a paranoia joke? another covid joke?
I hear people laughing, I hear
people talking about money, I hear
people eating with their families
but when that one sad chair is empty
they seem relieved to be there
-- not mourning, it's so hard, as
they/we should, we know we should
we know we must
why don't we?
