Unceasing Toll

Free verse on the ravages of the pandemic

Published in

Pâro

Apr 28, 2021

cacophony of daily street life
silenced by a commanding thrum

thoughts freeze,
slip back into
memories
of the deaths,
the grief
that hovers
just beneath
the mundane

it beats again, and again,
falls into a rhythm
hard, ruthless, imposing

thoughts shred to mist
hearts race to throat
primal fear wrings
air from lungs

the drums rage;
the plaintive call
razes the walls
we thought could
withstand tsunamis

cassandraic visions
of our own mortality
overwhelm
the corners of eyes

mere prey, we wait
huddled inside
for silence
for deliverance

the beat slows,
air loses its solidity,
relief beckons

and is shattered…

another drum
screams,
another death
tolls its burden

nameless grief
carves itself a place
into quotidian rhythms
as the drums volley
ceaselessly…