Permission To Mourn

It is okay to mourn the rapid speed by which this treacherous virus caught us off guard Now we cope, we survive, some better than others And for so many, too many the dignity of dying has been denied After a life long-lived, you were left to meet the great beyond alone cut off from those who were in your precious circle We grieve for you We grieve for lost moments and time that cannot be recaptured Crowded malls, movie theater lines, standing sweaty shoulder to shoulder in packed concert halls and bars nodding simultaneously to familiar tunes We grieve the mundane, predictability of our former world Crammed in trains with intoxicated hockey fans en route to the big game We mourn the cold we braved together the obnoxious fans of the other team the homeless percussionist banging out beats for bread on their white, plastic bucket snare drum The fairs and festivals The planes and anticipation of travel and adventures to come I miss you deeply my flawed, beautiful human society of the pre-virus days I am sickened by what this virus has done to us You made us divided and filled our heads with wild conspiracies You kept us trapped in our echo chambers You drove us apart when we most needed to stick together You wore out our battle wearied soldiers of the front line risking it all to keep us well to be a last connection to the human world before fading into eternity We can never forget what you have meant for us all It is okay to grieve my beautiful people We will one day be given back some version of our former world it will look and feel different We will have lost great people along the way there are more days to fight God speed.