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July 17, 2020

The Quarantine Chronicles, Day 94


DAY 94: Dazed, dazed, we're dazed
we go on with chores and interactions
we eat times 3 and sleep in fits
we remember to brush our teeth
or not but we're in constant shock
shocked, stunned, gut-punched, dazed --
it's not improving.

100,000 Americans dead in 2 months
so many more victims falsely divided by nation
united by horror -- the Black Death --
how can we work, how can we
study, how can we imagine a future --
even when we do it
we don't know how.

to live in a plague, to move here
to there, day to day, person to
person, with love, with kindness
with hope -- what hope? 100s
of 1000s dead -- a tragedy too large
for us to embrace and without an
embrace it will never
go away.

it's right that we're this way
the only reaction acceptable
the dazed generation
out in the street, with friends
pretending they're not
all pretending it will end
making jokes, smoking,
knowing that this is our life
now and always.