Sunday, September 13, 2020

Death in an Unfashionable Zip Code - poem

Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

Death in an Unfashionable Zip Code

“The care of those who are sick…is an absolute priority...”

-Saint Benedict’s Rule, Ampleforth Abbey, 1997

Seventeen more cases, another death
They say the mortuary is full up now
Friends go to friends’ funerals, then die in their turn
And more funerals follow, and more friends die

The utilitarians rattle on
Like crumbling bones, about herd immunity
Until the ghost of Darwin comes for them
As a spectral ideologue in the night

Empty seats at the table, and in the pew
And a refrigerated room full of corpses

2 comments:

Verlie Burroughs said...

Hard to fathom this.

Lawrence Hall, HSG said...

So many deaths, and so much denial.