My son-in-law died of Covid.
\nI wrote his obituary.
\nI sent flowers.
\nI didn’t go to his funeral.
\nI knew it wasn’t normal.<\/p>\n
The governor was at Jerad’s funeral,
\nwithout a mask.
\nHe shook hands with my grandsons
\nwho had tested positive for the virus.
\nNot to worry!
\nHe was the first US governor to get the virus.<\/p>\n
He refused to mandate masks in Oklahoma.
\nAfter all, he survived.
\nThis brand of governor
\nhas become too normal.<\/p>\n
My son came from Virginia
\nto help his sister navigate
\nthe roiling waters of widowhood.
\nHe brought his laptops and his work.
\nWorking from anywhere has become normal.<\/p>\n
We visited, son, daughter, grandsons
\non one side of the dining room window,
\nparents on the other side,
\ntalking on our phones.
\nNot normal, but we were where we needed to be.<\/p>\n
The first thing I did two weeks after my second vaccine dose
\nwas hug my daughter and my grandsons.
\nMy son will be here next month for a family memorial.
\nI’ll hug him, too.
\nThe governor won’t be there.<\/p>\n
My friend died two weeks ago,
\nthe latest in a string of relatives and friends.
\nShe didn’t believe in vaccines.
\nHer family says, We think
\nshe died of a cardiac event.<\/p>\n
I worry for the undertakers,
\nfor family members,
\nand for the churchgoing faithful
\nwho never miss a funeral.
\nWorry is normal.<\/p>\n
As has become custom,
\nI sent flowers
\nand didn’t go to the funeral.<\/p>\n
Normal is a fluid state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My son-in-law died of Covid. I wrote his obituary. I sent flowers. I didn’t go to his funeral. I knew it wasn’t normal. The governor was at Jerad’s funeral, without a mask. He shook hands with my grandsons who had tested positive for the virus….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":665,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1136],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-half-marathon-poem","category-official-marathon-prompts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/665"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92857"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93357,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92857\/revisions\/93357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}