The Covid pandemic stole funerals for the loved ones
left behind to bury their dead.
Final viewings in pleasant rooms
meant to dispel the sorrowing gloom
of family and friends
gathered to share fond memories
and mend the tear in hearts
became limited to the closest few
wiling to dare the threat of virus.
How fearful it all seemed
to nations unwilling to mask against infection
and end the dread of more illness and death.
“Freedom” shouted anti-vaxers who waged war
on those in need of greatest protection.
And yet.
And yet.
Those truly defending their freedom
lie dying and dead unable to even be buried.
Bodies stacked along streets
of Mariupol, Chernihiv and Sumy.
Bombs rain down upon still-living heads
one-a-minute, bringing more dead
to fall without witness other than
their fellow dead.
Too dangerous to gather bodies
torn apart and bled.
Too dangerous to even bury the corpse.
No funerals nor gatherings of course.
How much crueler can life get?
And still anti-maskers refuse to mask;
not their own faces, but the skies above Ukraine
allowing missiles still to rain
down nothing but death
upon those who truly know what it means
to stand for freedom.
annarino writes 