Mourning Combined Grief of Men in the Pandemic

Mitali laments the countless deaths, grief and losses during the pandemic. It’s a dirge, exclusively for Different Truths.

The combined grief of men
matters — the combined pain.
 
I mourn, mourn the loss of
uncles, aunts, parents,
friends. I mourn, mourn
the loss, the passing of an
 
 age that is gone — gone is
an era, an eon, an epoch
of respite in their smiles.
Those are lost.
 
I miss the love, the heart,
the kindness, the gentle touch,
the voice that said you matter.
You are loved. All that is gone.
 
I had thought I was strong.
I could take death in my stride
and move on. But I find the
 
cracks growing, growing into
wide rifts that distance from
Others. I find being loving kills.
 
In pursuit of the strength to love
amidst this chaos of death,
in this unloving, disrespectful
hate-filled, venomous wait,
 
I sing to the sadness of fate.
I sing to the strength of love
that gives without expecting
a return. I sing my dirge.

Visual by Different Truths