NOT FAR ENOUGH DOWN
The dead have something to say.
A graveyard on Svalbard
which left the young dead with their virus
and betrayal to the keeping of the permafrost
could have been the place
that revealed the secret of the Spanish flu.
The dead had their crosses removed.
With solemn care and knife the researchers
cut their way down to the Spanish flu’s victims
who were said to have placed a virus on ice
while drawing their last breath.
The dead were taken up in vain.
Not even Svalbard’s cold earth
was enough to hold onto the moment of death.
The dead did not come far enough down.
With the force of their empty lungs
they praised the fragile beauty
called life, and remained silent about our death.
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