fatal/Em von der Ruhr

remember when
the world just stopped?
the capillaries in our lungs
inflamed and ignited 
like fireworks
celebrating the end of life 
as we knew it.

the fog of uncertainty was just as thick 
as the phlegm in our throats;
suffocating us.
we were weighed down
by the heaviness of fever;
it turned us malignant.
we shared the same disease,
we should have held our common fear close.

as it turns out, 
the illness wasn’t the only thing lethal.

humanity is fatal;
when did we become so foreign?