People die all the time

People die all the time

A few days back it was like
someone flipped a cruel yellow switch.

Everyone started saying, “People die all the time.”

I think it was right after we passed
the Vietnam War casualty mark.

Perhaps that was triggering?

The Pandemic needed to be
made into a Kulture Kampf

America can’t understand
or control
the Virus,
but a good ol’ fashioned 

Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Culture War;

America was made for one those!

And so the rallying cry:

People die all the time

It’s the flu, people die all the time

Only vulnerable people die all the time

We want haircuts… people die all the time

It is a Chinese conspiracy and people die all the time

It just kills the old and the weak; people die all the time

The doctors and nurses are faking it, people die all the time

“How do we know they didn’t die of underlying medical conditions? 

“After all, people die all the time.”

Here’s the thing, they’re dead right

A parishioner watched his elderly neighbor’s corpse removed by cops after a wellness check.
“People die all the time.”

South of us the funeral director did two and a half years worth of funerals in a month.
“People die all the time.”

They say 2 people a day die on average at the local hospital, 70 a day this April.
“People die all the time.”

Our crematorium is now two weeks behind schedule and

one county north of us, they’re backed up by five weeks.
“People die all the time.”

My wife has a compromised immune system

and I have a congenital heart condition…
people die all the time

And yet we want to live.