After a Tip from Andover Rehabilitation Center
an erasure poem from a New Jersey newspaper article
call for body bags
came late Saturday
corpse removed
from the shed
17 bodies small morgue
intended to hold four
overwhelmed by people
who were expiring
76 tested positive
swept with deadly speed
increasingly sick
lack of protective gear
Lily Repasch died
her son and three daughters
talked through a window
after state decided
to stop allowing visitors
moved to refrigerated truck
outside hospital
not surprised
by the number of bodies
did not return
calls or emails
not authorized
to speak
big weakness
in the system
12 thoughts on "After a Tip from Andover Rehabilitation Center"
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What you did with this form is incredible! You take a single story and maximize it in dozens of ways. Yes!
This: “not surprised
by the number of bodies
did not return
calls or emails
not authorized
to speak”
Well done!
An amazing erasure. Haunting and powerful.
A sobering distillation of the story that payed out in so many places, for so many Lilys and their families.
The last words—“big weakness in the system”—weighs as much on the scale as all that came before. Thank you.
Wow, your journalist detailing really make this haunting.
“Lily Repasch” the only thing in the poem important enough to capitalize
It’s massive and micro at the same time. And done as an erasure really works. ” not authorized/ to speak” is so universally terrible and then some air and that ending
“big weakness
in the system “
wonderful erasure poem!
Great erasure! Wow, what a time that was.
You captured what so many have forgotten from the pandemic with a perfect choice of form!
Oh, see, now, you’re showing off! You and Karen are making me crazy to write one of these.
Awesome and heart-wrenching. My uncle died in isolation — I feel for the Lilly’s of the world.
Powerful. Your images insure we not forget.
especially,
“Lily Repasch died
her son and three daughters
talked through a window”
This! What a concise and keenly-crafted piece of poetry.
Wow! What a descriptive tale. I would not need more.