knife clenched
in numb fingers
I carve vertical lines
into white plaster
that crumbles
to my touch
effervescent
I notch each loss
deeply into
the walls
a makeshift
memorial
I long for neat
parallel lines
to honor the dead
but my hands
tremble
unsteady
© 2020 Christine Elizabeth Ray – All Rights Reserved
Brave & Reckless 
Hands?
Yours tremble?
Mine shake
Like glass
Wants broken
Into shards
And
Crushed under foot
To return to sand
Unmelt me
But first
Pick a shard
Of me
To help carve
Names,
so many…
So many
So many
So many
Wake me from my
Nightly nightmare
Screaming, I don’t
Want it’s memory
So many
So many
So many
Pick my shard
Off the ground
And carve
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Brilliant and heartbreaking
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Numbers check… how many Americans have died during/because of republican presidents… 9/11… Afghanistan and Iraq invasions… now COVID 19… write a poem on that number…
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much harder to calculate, I am sure. . .
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Yeah
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Reblogged this on cabbagesandkings524 and commented:
Christine Ray – Counting to remember
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Marking down each and every one we had lost during our lives…
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4,087 was the total of coronavirus deaths in the United States as of the time I wrote last night. The global total is much more devastating- 49,236 as of this moment
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Excellent
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Thank you so much
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You’re welcome!
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