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June 2, 2020

The Quarantine Chronicles, Day 49

DAY 49: Okay, I'll start. Nobody else
seems to be onboard. I'll go first. For
the 20,000 Italians, the 40,000 Americans
150,000 Humans, all numbers underestimated
by a factor of 3-10 -- for all the brave
souls dead of the virus in only a
couple months, I GRIEVE, I
MOURN, I CRY -- I hereby
declare a year of official mourning
during which each survivor
will focus each day on mourning
the dead one by one, one name
one essence, one personality at a
time -- most religions encourage
the living to honor the dead
in ritual and rhyme for safe
passage to whatever's next -- we
owe them that, we owe something to
those who were disposed of, those who 
vanished -- we owe ourselves the healing
power of grief -- GOOD GRIEF
said the sage Charles Brown,
if we don't mourn, if we talk
about beaches and burgers
numbers and graphs, we
will give ourselves a second
virus, COVID-20, the hungry bug 
that eats into our hearts until
there's nothing left -- not to
grieve for selfishness, for 
our own sake, or for them
the missing, for cosmic balance
for whatever reason, no reason.
No. Grieve because we must.
We must.