Tell Me Not in Mournful Numbers

as
death
hit from
covid's call
one hundred thousand
tulips hyacinths daffodils
burst-fatalities swooped up like returning swallows
in quiet implosion of closing lives against bright explosions of flowering trees
my mind measured blossoms, birds, and virus statistics
as a surrealistic swirl
until susan joined
the number
of the
plague
dead