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May 29, 2020

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.

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