India, Covid Poem by Sheena Blackhall

India's anguish. A death toll abysmal
Weeping families ferrying sick kin
In search of oxygen, get curt dismissal

The dying queue in trollies for retrieval
By corpse collectors, gathering bodies in
From hungry funeral pyres, flames horrid sizzle
Doctors and nurses face this dire upheaval
A battle they are ill equipped to win
Covid's a plague both cruel and medieval

A cough, a headache, fever, is the prequel
To plunging stats, locked in a downward spin
Dropping in freefall, predatory and lethal
Ash on the Ganges floats, the ghosts of people