One
Hundred Years Ago
by Henry Ahrens
by Henry Ahrens
The
government mail wagon,
like
an upright coffin,
brought
influenza to our town
one
hundred years ago.
We
couldn’t hold our breath
forever,
the will to live brought death,
a
gurgling gasping for air,
no
relief anywhere,
hospitals
with winding sheets white
and
toe tags for patients to die,
vaccines
grasping and no more effective
than
garlic sacks around our necks.
October
came full fear of fall,
steam
shovels dug trenches for all,
a
mound of corpses deep in ground,
one
hundred years ago.
Henry
Ahrens attended
St. Joseph's College in Rensselaer, Indiana, but now resides in
Cincinnati, Ohio, where he teaches a variety of high school English
classes. His works have appeared in From the Edge of the Prairie,
Tipton Poetry Journal, and Indiana Voice Journal.