Culture
I Heard It’s Getting Better
I Heard It’s Getting Better

 

- Diksha Bijlani


Says a colleague at work.
She means the bodies in the news from India seem fewer.
I’ve been productive, stopped sending donation links.

In these times, better is just another word for quiet.
The way I know grief is quiet.
So much sound when they’re breathing their last
So little when they’re gone.
Death leaves everything quieter.

India is better now. The parents have buried their children.
A man refused vacation days – there is no mother to visit anymore.
Two best friends both lost a father – grief gets no special attention anymore.

To cope with death we learned to expect it. It’s better now.
Now we’re the ashes the funeral pyre left behind – dark, scattered and quiet.

 

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