Zahra Bardai
Unravelling. Each thread more frayed than the last,
Dissolution. Dissolving. Disappearing.
Reduced to the sounds of a heart beating:
Lub-Dub, Lub-Dub, Lub-Dub
Tempos rushing; auditory, pulsatile.
Pupils dilating, vision blurring, fingers shaking.
The sound morphing.
Reaching out. Retreating.
Darkness returning.
Reverberations of the past, faintly beckoning.
Beaconing.
A primal source of strength
Reaching across the ether of time…
Someone to hold my space.
Ancient echoes…
“Duty to care; In pestilence; At your peril.”
A pride of profession.
A calling. A dedication. An obligation.
In the early hours of contagion, a tempest of intelligence.
Nation after nation, in allegiance.
Sharing experience, telling the tale.
Reliving the nightmare.
Warnings unheeded.
Tired souls, resting on thorns.
Ignoring the hunger, slaking the thirst.
Conserving the order.
Reaching across the ether of time…
Someone to hold my space.
Sounds of “We lack, we lack, we lack.”
Mantles. Shields. Filtering masks.
Pupas in mobcaps, sacks, cloth and fiber rags
Ricochet in nanoseconds across the globe.
Loudly calling the slaughter,
Bearing the weight of bodies in bags.
Noses abraded, eyes sunken, skin broken.
Tattoos of elastic strapping deeply embedded.
Stung by the salt of tears.
Promises shattered.
“Primum Non Nocere”. First do no harm.
No harm, no harm, no harm to Whom?
Reaching across the ether of time…
Someone to hold my space.
Red dawns and ruddy sunsets encipher,
Betrayals and babbittry.
Belligerence. Breakdown of faith.
Unfettered oaths of office crumbling,
The duty to protect,
Mine. Yours. Ours.
Perfidy embodied in plagues,
Nebulous boundaries without meaning.
Life’s breath escaping in nomadic sprays,
Peripatetic.
Peregrine.
Rootless and roving.
Reaching across the ether of
time… Someone to hold my space.
Bedside vigils and watchful sentinels.
Forging compassion, connection, affiliation.
Benevolent miens.
Stranger’s countenance.
Final expressions.
Lasting impressions.
Preserving pixels with digital wings.
Moments of silence bearing witness.
Honouring. Hearkening. Homaging.
Legacies untended.
Generations left to wander.
Omnipotence in eternal exhumation.
Reaching across the ether of time…
Someone to hold my space.
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