DEATH Poem: In a Haze of Plight, by Raaghavi Kalluri

For a fortnight I have listened with labored breath
To the unsynchronized cadence of mucus-infused coughs.
dreaded tears swarm in my eyes as the coarse plastic of my gloves brushes across palms
emanating sweat
And my fingers quiver grievously as I caress awry, dandruff-ridden hair

I withheld my deluge of sorrow
Even as our earth crumbled in the face of viral governance
And our disease-consumed world splintered normality

whilst humankind plummeted headfirst
I deemed her invincible

Until your misfortuned downfall
Calmness evaporates from my mind
When her tarnished arms cradle the syringe
And her lips mindlessly inhale undesirable remedies

I am nothing a castaway on this parasitical land of horrors and debludgery
But sanctimoniously I pray,
Day after woeful day
For the dark, spindle fibers of fatality to unravel from my mothers fate,
And for He to free her from this pool of eternal suffering.

From the suffocating halo of perilous, uncharted waters
She, whose DNA is adorned with the blossoming petals of love
May she find salvation
And the Lord guide her to Heaven

As her strength falters
Among troubled waters
May her eternal soul awaken with the birth of a new dawn.