Defectus per pestilenta

are our households
and our families - the
stench of burning
reaches us yet - the
houses are silent, the
children do not laugh
or sing, there
is no playing, only
the sound of weeping and
wailing rises like
a prayer to the
iron hand of the Lord.

He has taken us up,
away, with evil of
body, much blood and
pain, our pustules
seeping, our mouths
working but silent. How
we have prayed, but
an enemy unseen
moves among us
shearing shearing
reaping souls and cleaving
bones.

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