The Summer of Death

'One could almost smell death through the screen.'

Amber Sinha

'One could almost smell death through the screen.'

I’ll remember it as the summer of death.
News so overwhelmingly real
One could almost smell death
Through the screen.

I’ll remember the countless evenings
Spent alone on my balcony.
The stillness outside,
The turbulence within.

I’ll remember the unsung heroes,
Leaving their families and lovers
So we can live another day
With ours.

I’ll remember the fear and loneliness
The coming undone,
The piecing back.

I’ll remember it as the summer of death,
When humanity came alive.

Rohini Kejriwal is a writer and artist based in Bangalore, India. She runs The Alipore Post, a newsletter and journal featuring poetry, art, music and other wonderful things.

Featured image credit: Jr Korpa/Unsplash

This article went live on June twelfth, two thousand twenty, at zero minutes past twelve at night.

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