# 14 The Uncounted

Spoken word is new to me. Feels a bit awkward but a nice change.


The Uncounted

I wonder at the end of this, as if an end can be determined with precision, like when you got a wisdom tooth pulled--it was there and then it wasn’t--

I wonder how many of the dead and the suffering as a result of this virus, how many will be uncounted, unaccounted for?

The person who was so depressed, who could barely pull themselves out of bed, occasionally pushed themself to go out, who is now told “Stay at home”, is there a reason for them to leave their bed? Will they ever leave it again?

And the child who gratefully climbed on the school bus each day, knowing that at least from 7:30-3:00 no one would hit them, beat them, scream at their worthless self. They would know for at least those 7 ½ hours they were safe and maybe they could dream a little. But with the stay at home order, they have no escape, only endless days with angry fathers or mothers, families even more stressed by fear mounting money problems.

The multitude of homeless people already living on streets, in shelters, too close, no safety net, too little help always, recognized now sometimes made to sleep in parking lots, spaces marked off, 6 feet apart.

Addicts dying alone in a room because less people are coming around to check on them. And when do,

Sometimes the EMTs refuse to give them the only chance they might get. People who don’t cope well in normal life, thrown into the most not normal life.

And those making their early steps into recovery when a meeting every day is the only thing keeping them sane and sober and now having to do it online. But they need that hug, that handshake, to look someone else in the face and they can’t see deep into their eyes or hear deep inside their stories through a screen and will they make it through this or slip and use again and maybe it’s the one time that is the last time. And when this is done , will they be counted as a fatality from this disease. Will they be counted at all.