Out from white lips whispers
“I’m scared”
Lost words dissolve into the air.
Bicentennial eyes cry black tears
Pale, boney hands clench nothing.
Fear holds the hand.

A child falls to the ground
As the winds blow in her outside home
Long, dark curls cover a white face
Decorated with black spider webs.
Reality is too hard to know
When it’s staring her in the face.

The night comes too soon
The sun rises too early
Hushed whispers and pointed fingers
Laugh at the human girl
Once a friend, a colleague, a neighbor
Now scares them, as they scorn and condemn.

Footprints left on sand
Wash away in moments.
A human body is pure one day
But infected the next.
People turn from tangible beings
To faded pictures on a page.

A girl dancing in God’s spotlight
A girl’s song hitting ears
A girl once loved and admired
Now tugged away and pressed
To an old, browned page
Still alive but yet already a memory.

Eyes, the key to the soul
Once shining, deep as the sea
Become dim, outlined with puffy, red skin
And thick, black liner, dripping off her face.
Defined curls and dark skin, once exotic and beautiful
Become limp and pale.

The child lifts her head to the wind
As it carries away her black tears
And Fear slips out of her hand
While Darkness slips in.
It’s not a surprise, but a relief
“Darkness” she had cried, “Take me with you”

Hungry and alone she had suffered and cried
As she is smuggled in the Darkness’s blanket
She knew what many didn’t.
Another human gone, as the sun would find, in the abyss of daylight
An unclean needle
A child, imperfect behind her shining mask
Taken victim to the epidemic.