and as humans stand defeated,
the only move we have left is --

denial.

denial so strong that
governments string it in a phrase:

"we shall try to return to normalcy;
with schools open and businesses
to be supported as the economy restarts."

granted that people's brain 
had started to rot like the vegetables 
sitting unsold in the small, family-run
grocery store below the apartments, 
the padlocks have been forced open --

but with what cost?

another million. 
another million. 
another million...
the words have faded away.

death no longer is on the front page. 
masks no longer feel like suffocating
layers of cloth.

another thousand deaths. 
another thousand cases.

we walk on pretending blindness
while our guts churn. somewhere
in the world, another social gathering
lets the enemy run loose and wreck 
havoc as irresponsibility reappears in every nook and cranny of society.

we walk on. another day with 
necks bent towards bright lifeless rectangles.

death's doors have opened,
and we walk on.