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Right before I was diagnosed
Dad revealed that he had been able to hear our late cat again
Through his cellphone, he would receive calls
And he would stop to listen to the familiar mewls from the other end of the line.
He showed me the call logs
A full list.

He had kept this a secret from us in light of everything else that was going on
People's pets were rotting and disappearing
Slowly becoming vapors in the pink sky
Our neighbor's dog, a white and black collie, had withered right in their backyard
And then I was told that the same would happen to me.

My doctor, pale in both physical appearance and life quadrant
Told me using a soft, scratchy voice that I was rotting.
My symptoms were all lining up
The rot on my fingertips was not some unknown disease, or simple curable malady.
I was going to sink into the earth.

My disease spread to the media and the news rose,
Much like our cat had
To mewl on the other end of the screen about people around the world
Succumbing to this rot that I shared.

I watched footage of a wedding at the beach
One of the bridesmaids had collapsed, pink dress in the seafoam
So the entire family had contracted the disease
And now, everyone who attended that wedding was slowly disappearing.

I cried at the thoughts of slow decay
Not for myself
But for everyone else
They were afraid.

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Author's Note: This poem is based on a dream I had on the night of May 14th-15th, 2020.


By Adaline Guerra