Stages of Grief

BY BRIANA BARTENIEFF |

There’s nothing quite like it to be compared to

At least in my lifetime

But the only thing I can relate it to is nothing new

It’s

The stages of grief

Instead of watching the coffin disappear into hollow ground

You’re trapped within it

Pacing

Wondering

What it would be like

To breathe once again

Something fresh

Something new

We knew it was coming

Got a sense of Denial

But we’ve been diagnosed with a case of the American Dream

Meaning it won’t hurt us if we don’t let it be seen

If we work

And watch from afar

Saying “silly children it is not our problem, but someone else’s, someone who’s different from us. Poorer and dumber, and one who doesn’t have the luck that we do in our water streams.”

But when our faith runs out

And this terrible killer lies itself in our filthy lands

We get Angry at those people who suffered with it first

Because where’s the fun if we do not have someone to blame

Humans need a reason for their own naiveté

Guilt does not run in our eyes

Until we see a loved one die

Now we are the one thing we hate the most

The victim

So we beg and plead

Bargaining for a better deal

To beg the devil just for another day in the sun

While ignoring the pleas from the elderly hum

To try and wash the blood off our hands

The blood of those who we ignore

As the poison scent of youth intoxicates the sweetest of our generation

But now the lowly caged bird sings sadly in its home

Grieving of the life it was supposed to know

Instead of seeing the blue skies

Or hearing the voices of the happiest aglow

Its new definition of the world fits in its palm

All on a tiny screen

With the news drowning out the howling of`true loneliness

Time ends up losing its deity

And ends up producing a great tragedy

Of lives lost both physically and mentally

Because a death does not begin at the end of a heart and its beat

It also begins when you can’t bring yourself to your feet

Yet as time moves on

We start to see things differently

As we sober up from the luxury of excess freedom

We Accept that this is history

That we’re living in it

Even though it’s a hell of a monstrosity

We appreciate distance for it can be lifesaving

And although most of us don’t know someone who’s died

I think our disregard of saving humanity has

I think that we now know how important life is

Even if it is a stranger

Because at the end of the day we all got a heart and soul

And by knowing the importance of that

Our importance

It will get us all through this virus

The virus of forgotten kindness

Bartenieff is a student at Purchase College, State University of New York.