.

Marching with the Mourners

In Memory of Richard and Rob

inspired by the Halt Hospital Homicide Rally I
attended in San Antonio on March 25, 2023,
for those who lost their lives to evil Covid-19
protocols.  

They gathered at the Alamo then strolled
With banners bearing faces of the dead
Through streets awash with blazing rays of gold
That shed bright light on hands forever red—
Harmful hands that traded hope for dread;
Healing hands that chose to kill instead.

This stoic crowd gained strength in unity
Beneath the bluest sweep of springtime skies—
Each there to take the opportunity
To unmask cons who ditched the truth for lies—
Fools who wore the white coat of the wise
Ghouls who planned each harrowing demise.

Each tortured life was worth a tidy sum
To fiends who foisted Covid protocol
On unsuspecting souls forced to succumb
To deeds by frauds who held them in their thrall—
Brutes who had the reaper-scything gall
To slaughter for a lucre-laden haul.

I heard the words from witnesses that day—
Words pouring from the sore and aching space
That gapes in hearts now wracked with raw dismay
Inflicted by the daemons of disgrace—
Slayers with a sympathetic face;
Saviors paid to cull the human race.

.

.

Susan Jarvis Bryant has poetry published on Lighten Up Online, Snakeskin, Light, Sparks of Calliope, and Expansive Poetry Online. She also has poetry published in TRINACRIA, Beth Houston’s Extreme Formal Poems anthology, and in Openings (anthologies of poems by Open University Poets in the UK). Susan is the winner of the 2020 International SCP Poetry Competition, and has been nominated for the 2022 Pushcart Prize.

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68 Responses

  2. Alysa Jarvis

    Thank you, Susan, for capturing the pain and betrayal felt by those who lost loved ones in hospitals not from a disease but from disregard for human life. Hospitals, doctors, and nurses are supposed to help not harm. 648 names were read that day. One life was too many.

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Alysa, it has been an absolute honor to write a poem that speaks for all those who have suffered at the hands of pure evil – there is no other word strong enough to convey the atrocities that occurred (and still occur) in hospitals that put money above lives. It was also a privilege to walk with you on an unforgettable day in San Antonio in memory of your dear husband, Richard. Those who were murdered will have justice. We must never be silent.

      Reply
  3. C.B. Anderson

    Well, Susan, no one will ever accuse you of pulling your punches. The horrors attending the machinations of the Covid industry cannot be overstated. I’m not saying that I haven’t been jabbed lately (you know, routine blood screening, lidocaine for dental procedures and the like) but I am glad that I have never consented to a Covid “vaccination,” much less ever been boosted. I hesitate to make public my feelings about what should happen to Grouchy Fauci for his role in all of this, but I daresay that I doubt he will ever get what he deserves. I know that the Lord said, “Judgement is mine,” but He will just have to get in line behind the rest of us.

    Now to poetics: I especially admired the dependent clauses and the appositions near the end of each of your stanzas. They add a richness of description to, and a poignant elaboration of, your main points, which were in themselves damningly incisive.

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      I thoroughly appreciate your comment, C.B., for your fine eye on the literary front (I’m thrilled you like all my creative twists and turns) but (most importantly) for your recognition of my “damningly incisive” message. I wanted to hit a sympathetic note without losing any of the ire, fire, and truth along the way. Thank you. Your words mean a lot.

      Reply
  4. Margaret Coats

    Powerful repetitions in the earlier stanzas (“hands,” “ghouls,” “frauds”) followed up by more powerful characterizations in the final stanza: “demons,” “sadists,” “monsters.” Yet these are the persons still pretending to care for us in our hospitals! One speaks of how terrible those days were for her, when she lost a patient every night. What can we think of her self-pity?

    Of course, some saw what was going on and left, to offer their services helping patients at home stay out of hospitals. They earned practically nothing as private caregivers, risked losing licenses, and became pariahs to the profession when they also refused vaccination.

    The lucre was definitely there. Each “covid-19” scribbled on a death certificate meant an extra TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS for the hospital, according to an emergency room doctor who reports that this “protocol” absolutely eliminated seasonal flu as a cause of death at his hospital for two years.

    Death was easily inflicted on the most vulnerable (the elderly, the obese, those with multiple medical problems), isolated from anyone who might cheer them or advocate for them. Every one of us has losses from this planned assault on life carried out so near us.

    May God grant eternal rest to Richard and Rob, and let
    perpetual light shine upon them and others like them.

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Margaret, many thanks for your in depth understanding of this horrific subject, together with your beautiful words for Richard, Rob, and all those who died under the same circumstances. This was a tough poem to write but I simply had to do it. Poetry is a way of shining light on the truth… one of the best ways I know how.

      As for the money, we heard that many hospitals were paid before the patients died and had to return it if they didn’t die. Money was given for the inaccurate PCR test, prescribing drugs such as remdesivir (which is known for shutting down organs), intubation, and the big one… death. This was no less than murder. The good thing is, all those who saw it for what it was and let their conscience guide them, spoke up and are still doing so. There are many heroes in this world, it just seems the villains are in control… for now… it’s time we all championed the truth.

      Reply
  5. Joseph S. Salemi

    Our hospitals became de facto concentration camps during the Covid hysteria — a hysteria fueled by medical hubris and sheer avarice. The unspeakable Fauci will NEVER face human justice, nor will the thousands of hospital and nursing home personnel who connived in these mass murders.

    Susan, I am very glad to see you writing again!

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Joe, I’ve been busy and it’s great to be back. I’m bursting with poems to write… and I will find the time!

      Every single word you say about the hospitals is spot on. As for human justice, I am a lot more hopeful having met lawyers who have been called to the cause and are fighting for those who have had their loved ones murdered under these circumstances… lawyers who are working together on a donation basis (those too poor to pay them get their services for free) to get justice… and they’re hungry for it. I’m praying they succeed.

      Reply
    • Joshua C. Frank

      Joe, hospitals have been concentration camps for a long time. They gave my grandmother surgeries and drugs that she didn’t need but worsened her health just to make a buck, and that’s why she died when I was 16.

      As bad as concentration camps were, at least they were openly so. Hospitals present themselves as life-saving.

      Reply
      • Joseph S. Salemi

        I know what you mean, Joshua. When my paternal grandfather was placed in a hospital towards the end of his life, he was so shocked by the callousness and unconcern shown in the place towards patients that he got out of bed, dressed himself, called for discharge papers and a pen, and SIGNED HIMSELF OUT, even though he was functionally illiterate and could only scrawl his signature. He then exited the place, hailed a cab, and went back to his home. He was over 90 at this time, and only barely ambulatory.

  6. Sally Cook

    A cousin of mine went into the hospital with a blood infection. They kept him there; it was said he died of covid, but I never believed it. Always thought he was a convenient statistic. Awful.

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Dear Sally, I am so sorry to hear of your cousin. Thank you for relaying your thoughts on his situation… thoughts I believe are true, sadly.

      Reply
  7. Mike Bryant

    FormerFeds is making an online record of interviews with the widows and widowers of loved ones “treated” with the FDA hospital murder protocols. These interviews are still being collected and are available here:

    https://formerfedsgroup.org/the-covid19-humanity-betrayal-memory-project/

    The interviews are devastatingly convicting of the ghouls who have taken over our institutions. If you watch the videos, make sure you have some Kleenex on hand.

    If you are in a hospital for any reason, one of the first questions you are asked is, “Are you vaxxed for Covid?” If you answer, “No.”, you are marked for isolation. Then you WILL get the PCR test which is famous for false positives. You have just become a cash cow for the medical/industrial complex. They already have the check. They have to send the money back if they do not follow the rest of the protocol. At this point, you better hope you have powerful, dedicated friends that are willing to break you out of the hospital. The police will not help you.

    Reply
  8. Mike Bryant

    1,000 Widows, 1000widows.org, a national group has said,

    The malpractice performed by our hospital systems is undeniable. The Commonalities between all of our testimonies illustrate a powerful force that can no longer be ignored. We pray 1,000 Widows will serve as a place for anyone who desperately seeks vindication and justice. Please share your testimony with us. Follow us and join in our journey as we begin to draft a class action lawsuit against the hospital systems who willingly and knowingly participated in the greatest crime against humanity.

    The commonalities in their testimonies:
    Commonalities:

    1.    Dehumanized
    2.    Isolated
    3.    Starved and Dehydrated
    4.    Bullied
    5.    Patient Rights Ignored
    6.    Verbally and Physically Abused
    7.    Chemically and Physically Restrained
    8.    Refused Personal Care
    9.    Hospital Acquired Infections and Wounds
    10.    Minimal Nursing Interaction
    11.    Lack of Consent
    12.    Denied Treatments and Right to Try
    13.    Denied Antibiotics
    14.    Harmful Oxygen Induced
    15.    No Informed Consent
    16.    Medically Gaslighted
    17.    ICU Escalation
    18.    Ventilation without Consent
    19.    Family Physician Shut Out
    20.    Denied Power of Attorney
    21.    Denied Physician Communication
    22.    Forced Palliative Care
    23.    Coerced DNR
    24.    Communication Devices Taken
    25.    Ignored Call Lights
    26.    Medications without Authorization
    27.    Ignored Adverse Reactions

    Or, in a nutshell:

    1.    Denied the right to try
    2.    Remdesivir (now commonly referred to as “Run death is near”)
    3.    Ventilated
    4.    Isolated
    5.    Starved

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Thank you, Mike! I would like to add that the drug ‘Remdesivir’ (also known as Veklury) was in trials for the treatment of Ebola. It is highly toxic. 53% of those administered with the drug died. This drug is now being used for prolonged periods on Covid patients, shutting down the organs within days. The mortality rate of Covid is around 1%. The figures tell you all you need to know. They don’t call Remdesivir ‘Run, death is near’ for nothing. It’s earned its nickname.

      Reply
  9. Brian A Yapko

    Susan, this is an exceedingly fine poem which is all the more powerful for being restrained in its tone and use of poetic devices. Oh, they’re there but they do not take center stage — since the painful message speaks for itself. I’ll never forget the horrors the medical hegemony inflicted on those who were most vulnerable. They imposed protocols that were nonsensical and cruel. Every time proof was offered that their actions were arbitrary and ineffectual they defiantly doubled down on the nonsense. I picture the callous, tyrannical Nurse Ratched from “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”

    I saw a meme on Facebook two days ago. It was a young man in a park cheekily modeling a quite pointless portable seatbelt. The caption: “For all those people who wore a mask while driving alone… The new outdoor seatbelt is now available.”

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Brian, thank you very much for this. It’s tough to hit the right note in a poem with a sorrowful and serious message. I’m so glad to hear I’ve managed it. The saddest thing is, while we were preoccupied with the malicious idiocy of mandating masks, the hospitals were doing far, far worse… There we were thinking they were caring for our loved ones while they were doing the exact opposite. The Hippocratic oath went by the wayside… but not for everyone. There are some amazing doctors and nurses out there who have been fired, shut down, and mocked for blowing the whistle on this evil. Many have saved lives and are still saving them. All hope is not lost.

      That portable seatbelt meme is hilarious… that’s exactly where we’re at… with Nurse Ratched hovering on the periphery. Knowledge is power. 😉

      Reply
  10. Roy Eugene Peterson

    Thank you for calling attention to such horrendous and callous disregard for life in such a thoughtful and provocative way. The message does transcend the beautiful alliterative sequencing.

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Roy, thank you very much for this. This was a tough one to write… a poem I had to write… and I will admit to being bothered about getting it right. Your words mean a lot.

      Reply
  11. Cheryl Corey

    Susan, this is the first such rally that I’ve heard of. How many were in attendance? Do you know … did it receive proper media coverage, and what that was like? How fitting that it began “at the Alamo” to make a stand. But where does it go from here? It may be years before the truth comes to light.

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Cheryl, this was the very first rally of this type, so it’s expected to grow as it travels the country. I think around 1000 (I will check) walked through the streets and gathered at a downtown conference center where there were testimonies and speeches given by widows, widowers, survivors, whistleblowers, doctors who refused to go along with the protocols, lawyers who have worked tirelessly to get victims out of hospital, and to work with those who’ve lost their loved ones. It was sponsored by the FormerFedsGroup Freedom Foundation, the NeverAlone Project, the C19 Widows and Widowers for Justice (the group our Texan friend belongs to), and the Covid-19 Humanity Betrayal Memory Project. Their websites are easy to find and will offer you more information. There was also an internet-linked interview with Reiner Fuellmich (a hero). Please follow his story. He is working for justice in Europe by drawing attention to the violations of the Nuremberg Code.

      The Alamo was an apt and an amazing meeting place. The atmosphere was electric. The horrific testimonies I heard at the conference center cut me to the quick. BUT all the people working to get this out in the open and bring justice to the victims heartened me no end. I have a friend in England and a friend in Texas whose husbands were murdered. My friend in England heard her husband screaming as the medical team intubated him… to this day, she wonders why the doctor called her and left his phone open for her to hear this… thus the word ‘sadist’ in my poem. His lungs were irreparably damaged in the process.

      Reply
  12. Tiree MacGregor

    It seems miserly to address perceived weaknesses in any poem on a subject such as this one, and especially a poem written so well. The demands of criticism and the art of poetry stand to some extent at odds with the demands of justice and morality. First, however, a few words about the poem (perhaps only stanza 1), then a word or two about the subject.

    I very much like the handling of the metre through most of the poem. The opening 3 ll., for instance, show the mastery in an unassuming way with the composed runovers and mildly modulated iambs, which render a smooth rhythm. With a base like that, the poet can, if desired, deviate in interesting ways, though these of course must be controlled. This happens in line 4, which has heavier, striking iambs, followed up by the same in lines 5 and 6, with alliteration that increases the emphases, which bear an emotional burden of moral outrage. These qualities are effective, which is to say, appropriate to the subject matter.

    However, the peevish critic will wonder about a few things: rhetorically, the “blazing rays of gold” is pure description of an elevated sort; ideally, one would like description that does something more, given the elevation in diction, and although the description is fine in itself, a slight hitch (or hesitancy in the reader) comes with the next half line: “They flooded light.” The antecedent of “They” is not, of course, the “rays of gold” but the “They” opening the poem. But we have light of two different sorts and functions, one right after the other. They seem wanting in a link of some kind, perhaps rhetorical and grammatical, as well as moral.

    The critic will note the truncated metre of ll. 5 and 6 and see the emphatic rhythmical, rhetorical, and moral effects. The peevish critic will object that the couplet is not thereafter adhered to metrically in the ensuing stanzas, though similar effects are obtained in l. 4 of st. 2 and l. 4 of st. 3. The skill displayed all through the poem implies that the poet could go one better in the handling of the form of the couplets. That said, all of the closing couplets are strong.

    To peeve further, however, let me skip to the last couplet and to one or two points about the subject. For while I myself have never been angrier in my life, and over anything like the sustained period during The Great Lockdown, the horrible truth is that almost none of the perpetrators of the sins and crimes committed against the innocent were actual “sadists with a sympathetic face.” I have no doubt that some of these people, few if any ever to be identified, were indeed sadistic, and that a smaller number of this group are actual sadists and monsters, though what they did was so often sadistic and monstrous. It might seem harsh to raise an objection, however, against the heartfelt and rightly righteous outrage we find in this couplet and throughout the poem. I’ll add that these moral and emotional responses resonate very strongly with me. I have been angry for much of the past three years, beginning on March 22, 2020, when we locked down here in Nova Scotia.

    Thank you for a memorable and admirable poem, Susan, one that I’m sure will inspire many others on the same subject.

    Reply
    • Joseph S. Salemi

      Tiree, good satire demands hyperbolic overkill and exaggeration. The satire’s target should be infuriated and outraged and humiliated. When a critic starts talking about what is “fair” and “balanced” in a discussion of satire, he either isn’t a good critic or else he nurtures a secret sympathy for the parties being attacked.

      Whether someone in particular is or is not an actual sadist need not concern Susan in her poem. Adolf Eichmann was not a sadist, and he may have had a sympathetic face. But that does not excuse the fact that he (and many others associated with him) were involved in mass murder on a gigantic scale. The simple fact is that an entire apparatus of the medical profession in Canada and the United States (with some honorable exceptions noted) went along with lies, coercion, and the disguised killing of helpless persons. We don’t need to cut them any slack because they seem like nice persons who aren’t flaming sadists. They are responsible, and they should pay for it dearly, though of course they won’t.

      In any case, your last paragraph is so tortured with balance and uncertainty and suspended judgement that I’m not sure what you actually think.

      Reply
      • Susan Jarvis Bryant

        Joe, thank you very for this comment. I tried to write a poem that encapsulates a feel, a deed, a moment in time that needs to be screamed from the rooftops with a warning and agonizing cry, a wakeup call, a shocking indictment of what the hell is going on behind the heavily guarded doors of hospital rooms. I understand the language may come across as overblown, but the sentiment behind the words is pure and true. That’s why I love poetry. It lets me reach out in ways no opinion piece ever could. Please know, many of the grieving have seen it, and they approve… I wrote it for them so that heartens me.

      • Tiree MacGregor

        Joseph, thank you for your thoughts. However, I’m surprised you think “Marching with the Mourners” is satire. I’m surprised, further, that you imply that I spoke of a need to be “fair” and “balanced,” apparently with an insipidness that I do not possess. My hope would be for the poet to eviscerate the guilty with searing criticism, and “Marching with the Mourners” comes as close to doing so as I’ve seen in verse. It’s simply that I perceive ways in which the poem can be improved, tweaked. I wouldn’t spend time writing about it if I didn’t think my criticisms could help or that the poet wouldn’t be open to them and well able to judge whether they were of any use.

        But perhaps you’ve written to me in the heat of emotion. While it may be gallant of you to come to the defence of a fellow poet, and one we both admire, please forebear the lecturing tone (about satire or anything else). And, supposedly, my “last paragraph is so tortured with balance and uncertainty and suspended judgement . . .”? What can you be thinking?

        The “sadists” and “monsters” claim seems to me ultimately to limit the power of the overall attack, though it stirs the emotions, because it is (as you acknowledge) overstatement, however understandable. The question is how best to employ these words or their adjectives. For in the vast majority of cases the perpetrators live next door (that is not to suggest letting them off the hook). They’re our siblings, uncles and aunts, our friends. They’re ordinary people who have complied with evil mandates and “recommended guidelines,” people too weak, fearful, and self-serving, if they did have doubts, to buck the system. They are strikingly like those who went along with the Nazis: frighteningly ordinary. THAT’s the nature of the horror. As Solzhenitsyn said, “the line separating good and evil passes . . . through every human heart.” Ordinary people have crossed that line, and while a few will acknowledge it, confess, and repent, the overwhelming majority, like that of society in general, will doggedly ignore the truth, and be willing to commit the next atrocity too. This is a hell of a situation. Would that the guilty might suffer the consequences of their acts. Alas, it is likely that God alone will be their judge.

        By the way, Canada’s National Citizens’ Inquiry just held its second set of hearings, in Toronto, with 6 more to go. A link: https://nationalcitizensinquiry.ca/
        The testimonies are vital, but so far they’ve been widely ignored.

      • Tiree MacGregor

        I’ve just seen your response to Joshua Frank’s comment to me. I can hardly thank you, however, for so backhanded a defence of myself. You seem to take pleasure in that method.

        As to my living under the federal government in this country, I don’t need your condescending false sympathy. But, again, you seem to take pleasure in being sarcastic toward strangers.

        Though the subject is quite removed from the poem I was interested in discussing, I am quite willing and able to criticise the governments I live under, and I have been active in fighting against their autocratic methods since before the beginning of The Great Lockdown. Furthermore, my criticisms of the constitution and of particular government policies in this country go back decades. The country I most admire, actually, is the USA, though I have never been there.

        As to the UK and its constabulary, I did write one poem addressed directly to an overbearing English cop back in May of 2021, but I’m not much of one for that kind of writing.

      • Joseph S. Salemi

        Tiree, I was neither condescending nor in lecture mode when I wrote those two posts. I made no comment whatever about your tweaks concerning meter and the use of couplets, because those observations were the sort of thing that this site is meant to encourage. And satire is a mode of attack — unless it hurts people, it doesn’t work.

        Your last paragraph was indeed quite confusing, and suggested some kind of conflict. And in your subsequent post when you talk about the guilty parties as being relatives, friends, and people who may live next door, the conflict is quite visible. Just because you know them, does that make them less guilty? Yes, of course the ordinary citizen is a go-along-to-get-along type. So what? Those are precisely the kind of people who need to be slapped hard in the face. If Susan’s poem did that, more power to her.

        I did not insult you or condescend to you in any way. By your own admission we both agree that Canada is a de facto tyranny, so it is perfectly proper for me to suggest that persons living in a tyranny may be cowed into silence, or a hedging of their bets when it comes to making a public statement. As I said in my post, we all must consider what a situation of this sort may be like, and what we might do if in it. If you have shown personal bravery in your situation, I respect that.

        I tried to direct Joshua to a more charitable attitude, and that was out of concern to avoid a heated argument. It was not “a backhanded defense” of you, but an attempt to calm things down.

    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Tiree, I appreciate your thorough reading of my poem and your in-depth critique. I will admit to writing this poem quickly… I wanted to get the word out there as soon as I could. I will also admit to being a constant editor of my work. No poem I’ve ever written is finished… it needs a lick of polish every time I look at it, so thank you for giving me a few pointers… I will bear them in mind.

      As for the line ““sadists with a sympathetic face” together with the use of the word “monsters”, I just have this to say: After witnessing the testimonies of many, many people whose loved ones were murdered in hospital (the use of the word ‘murder’ is wholly accurate), I have absolutely no qualms in writing this. I am all for “forgive them for they know not what they do”… and many I am certain had no idea of the consequences of what they were doing… BUT, those who made the ultimate decisions, those professionals in the white coats who put money before integrity, those who left an open phone on the side for people to hear the screams of their loved ones are no less than sadistic. In fact, I wish there was a stronger word for these monsters. The unforgivable fact is – they did have sympathetic faces, and they were trusted.

      Reply
      • Tiree MacGregor

        Dear Susan,
        If I had the slightest idea that any of my remarks might offend or hurt you one iota, and I sincerely hope they did not, let alone in the way they’ve disturbed our friends Salemi and Frank, then I’d have written only the praise (which I think is substantial in my remarks), or not have written at all. I believed my remarks might be helpful, and I still believe they might be, given your abundant strengths as a poet and the quality of your character, both of which have been evident to me in reading these pages over the past few months of my acquaintance with the SCP website.

        While one can of course call some evildoer a monster or sadist and appeal to emotions strongly in doing so (and I feel the appeal very strongly), I simply think that, there being so few real psycho- or sociopaths responsible, the truth of the ordinariness of the perpetrators is, as I said above to Dr. Salemi, the real horror. It is a subtle demonism. That is what we are living with, and it is agony. And what people have suffered might well drive one mad.

        In any case, if you have felt that I’ve been unfair or uncharitable or in any way offensive, then please accept my heartfelt apology. I’d have written back to you sooner, but I try not to touch the computer on Sundays, and today, once I was done with rounds one and two with Salemi and Frank, we had a technician here much of the afternoon and evening, switching our internet provider.

        Warm regards.

      • Susan Jarvis Bryant

        Dear Tiree, Joe, and Josh,

        I’m not sure where this will land in the thread, but I hope all of you will find my reply.

        Thank you all for your comments. I’ve read them intently and have gained from each one of them – the beauty of being on a site that welcomes these interactions. I always come away thinking, learning, and gaining from the experience.

        Tiree, please know you have certainly not offended me… surprised me, made me question a couple of my decisions, and made me think… but you haven’t offended me. As I said before, I appreciate you reading my poem in depth. I have made a couple of changes. I agree on the light-shedding front in the first stanza. The light seemed heavenly to me, and I don’t want to detract from that… so I’ve made a subtle change. Also, the word ‘sadist’. This word was mentioned at the conference, and I wanted my poem to reflect the witnesses accounts… but, how am I to know if those professionals took pleasure in what they did… only God knows that. I’ve changed the word but not the sentiment… so thank you.

        Joe, thank you so much for always encouraging me to write fearlessly. I cannot put into words what a difference that has made to my poetry… it makes it so much easier to be honest. When one is timid, so much is lost.

        Josh, thank you for your passion and your fierce sense of duty to the helpless and the voiceless… we have that in common and it’s good to know that there is someone out there willing to walk toward the fire when everyone else is running in the opposite direction.

        It’s always tough to communicate via messages on any social platform. So much is lost when you can’t look into someone’s eyes or read their body language. I have a feeling we are all on the same page… to varying degrees, of course.

        Thanks to all of you for reading my poem and for caring enough about the content to let me know. It means a lot to me.

      • Joshua C. Frank

        You’re welcome, Susan. Thank you for all you’ve done for me, the other poets on here, and the same voiceless people.

    • Joshua C. Frank

      It is not only “harsh” to raise such an objection, it is a slap in the face of anyone who lost someone to those butchers. Either you’re on the side of those devils incarnate or you don’t have the guts to stand up to them even in front of us, which is almost as bad. Shame on you either way.

      After everything Susan does to give a voice to the voiceless, you piss and moan at her because her poem doesn’t meet your arbitrary leftist standard? You all but demand that she kowtow to your moral relativism, which I know she would never do. At least the trolls who outright insult her are more or less honest about what kind of people they are.

      Reply
      • Joseph S. Salemi

        Well, let’s control our tempers, and remember the demands of charity. The man lives in Canada, where there is no Bill of Rights and where there is no freedom of speech. Anything he says in public can bring about a politically motivated legal indictment from Trudeau”s judicial Gestapo.

        We all have to think about how we would behave if we too lived in a totalitarian dictatorship. We would all be very careful. Think about the U.K. today, where the Royal Constabulary is now a tool of left-liberal and woke repression. And that’s in a nation that was once called “the Mother of Parliaments.”

      • Joshua C. Frank

        That’s true… although Norma Pain also lives in Canada, and she’s written poems critical of their government. Presumably, she’s still free.

        If the Canadian government is the issue, why say anything at all? Or why not use a pen name like that Chinese poet who protested against the Communist regime?

        Mr. MacGregor was certainly not following the demands of charity in what he said to Susan. I stand by what I said about his admittedly harsh comment, not just for myself, or even just for myself and Susan, but for everyone who lost a loved one to those vampires.

      • Tiree MacGregor

        Dear Mr. Frank,
        I am surprised by your emotionalism and the personal attack. You don’t seem to have paid very close attention to what I have said. I fully sympathise with your feelings about “those devils incarnate,” friend, but we have to recognise the shocking ordinariness of the vast majority who were using the old excuse: “just doing my job.”

      • Tiree MacGregor

        Mr. Frank, I’ve just seen your second comment. If you wish to pursue what I’ll call this “debate” (it’s plainly an attack), then do so in a responsible manner. Provide evidence of my supposed lack of charity. I think you might take the trouble to try to make an argument, rather than stoop to insult and ridicule. And if you would like my views on the Canadian government, you might ask.

      • Joshua C. Frank

        Mr. MacGregor:

        No, I don’t wish to argue. I was free with my reaction on the assumption that you don’t realize the serious offense that is your defense of the people directly responsible for the deaths of those we love. Sometimes we don’t understand how our words will be taken by others. For this reason, I always have my poetry reviewed by people I know and trust. It would make no sense to have something published only to have it have the opposite effect from what I intended.

        However, I stand by my comment that defending such people is a slap in the face of every person who has lost a loved one to them. You can say you sympathize with us all you like, but what you do speaks so loudly that the rest of us cannot hear what you say. You can try to defend yourself all you like, but that’s not going to change.

        Some of our poets on this site have lost family members to the Nazi death camps. Would you defend the Nazis to them on the grounds that they were “just following orders?” What you have said is that offensive to us. I will not back down and say otherwise. I paid close attention to what you said, and that’s why I take issue with it.

        Nothing I said was insult or ridicule. You haven’t yet seen me when I want to insult and ridicule. The intent is to speak up for those of us who have lost family members to the people you defend. I don’t write these responses to change the minds of my opponents, but for people reading. They need to see an alternative point of view from the “you need to understand the Nazis and feel for them” garbage pushed by mainstream culture.

      • Tiree MacGregor

        Mr. Frank, I’ll just say that I think we are more of the same mind than you realise. I am not in the least defending what those responsible have done to others. I want them held to account, far more than you can know. I’ve been angry for three years, furious for much of it. But you are not really listening to what I’ve been saying. That this is so feeds the insatiable leviathan that has been fomenting the fear of the compliant and the division between families and others who should be natural allies against this great evil.

      • Joshua C. Frank

        I’ve been listening quite carefully; that’s why I don’t believe you. Like Joseph, I’m not sure what you think anymore. Either way, what you’ve said to Susan is extremely offensive, and the fact that you called your own words harsh tells me you know that. You’ve completely ignored my analogy with the Nazis, which tells me you know I’m right about that.

      • Joseph S. Salemi

        I think we have all made our views plain, and should at this point cease debating.

      • Joshua C. Frank

        Yes, now that you mention it, I think we’re at that point, too.

  13. Damian Robin

    Thank you Susan for your forceful and slashing poem.

    My father had Covid 19 on his death certificate with a few other factors. He died in an old people’s home.

    The film Mike gave a link to reminded me of the The Liverpool Care Pathway for the Dying Patient in the UK. It has been widely stopped but is still used as a care pathway in the United Kingdom covering palliative care options for patients in the final days or hours of life.

    A friend of mine was subjected to it a few years ago. Her caring family were advised it was the best policy as my friend had no known disease. She was starved to death, slowly, after signing over her care to her family. She suffered, they did not as they swallowed the good nutrients of the whitecoats.

    Great progression, turn of phrase and rhyme scheme that forces repetition that doesn’t lose its effectiveness though expected. And in the last stanza, the last line’s rhyme hits harder as it is part of a two-part idea ‘human race’.

    Clever, dexterous, vibrant, compassionate, truthful, and sustained. On the side of humanity, for sure. All that I’ve come to relish and expect in what you do. Thank you!

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Damian, I thoroughly appreciate your comment. Thank you! I believe practices used in the ‘The Liverpool Care Pathway for the Dying Patient’ (which is about as far from “care” as one can get) is pretty much par for the course in a world that demonizes the human race and regards their very breath as detrimental to the planet. I believe the lockdown was to stop us comparing notes, but now we are and huge swathes of people who lost loved ones in hospital are finding out that their notes are the same as others, they’re joining forces, connecting with lawyers and whistleblowers, and are shouting their stories to the world. The truth is out… it’s sad that many still choose to turn a blind eye.

      Reply
  14. Norma Pain

    Susan, thank you for writing this truth poem on the horrors that many people experienced. One of my neighbors in her nineties, wasn’t allowed to visit her husband in the nursing home, for many months. They had been married for seventy years and it broke my heart to hear her cry. It is no wonder people are angry. Justice is needed.

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Norma, the story of your neighbor is indeed heartbreaking… it’s bloody well criminal, that’s what it is! I remember seeing a story from England of a daughter handcuffed and dragged away by the police because she wanted to remove her mother from a nursing home. A lady in our neighborhood could only say goodbye to her husband of 60-odd years through a glass window… and my friend could only hear the excruciating pain of her husband over the phone. Norma, the word is out… and, the truth always wins… in the end. Thank you so much for your comment, your support, and for keeping the truth alive through poetry!

      Reply
  15. Joshua C. Frank

    Susan, this is really good. I find it hitting close to home for me, so I can’t take too much time to comment, or I’ll say things I’d rather not have on the record… see my reply to Joseph Salemi. That’s the absolute nicest thing I have to say about hospitals.

    Of course, what can you expect from a culture that slaughters thousands of unborn children every day?

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Josh, thank you for this. I thoroughly appreciate how you feel about your grandmother. I believe this criminal behavior has been going on for decades and many have suffered. The hospital atrocities during Covid19 have shone a spotlight on the horrors occurring in many medical establishments… let’s hope it’s to good ends. That spotlight needs to shine day and night for as long as it takes.

      Reply
  16. Mark Stellinga

    Susan, this is precisely what genuine ‘Poetry’ is meant to do, address the ‘Meaningful’, and do so as eloquently as possible. I don’t cry all that easy, but this little jewel cost me 1/2 a dozen Kleenex. Bless you…

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Mark, thank you very much for this. I thoroughly appreciate your support. When I was listening to the stories at the conference center in San Antonio, I needed tissue after tissue… I am only too pleased I managed to convey the feelings I had when witnessing the horrific details of needless deaths. We need to be aware of what’s going on. It’s the only way we can work towards preventing it.

      Reply
  17. Shaun C. Duncan

    This is a dark, dark period in our history and I’m honestly not sure if the broader population will ever be able to face up to the awful truth of what has been happening these past few years. I’m not aware of any other poet covering the topic with the passion and attention to detail that you’ve displayed in this and your many other poems on the insanities of the covid era. This is historic and important work. Thank you.

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Shaun, thank you very much for your supportive comment. It is indeed a dark, dark period in our history, and I still live in hope that it can be turned around if we all open our eyes and mouths and stand up to those who are gaining more and more power by the day because we are complicit in our silence. That is why I write these poems… I still have hope… and it is my duty to my children and new granddaughter… I simply have to fight back in the only way I know how. Your appreciation of my poetry means a lot to me.

      Reply
  18. Peirithus

    Unfortunately, I think it is like that. How cruel. And how crazy. Yet people still seem asleep.

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Thank you for your comment, Peirithus. Let’s hope this poem wakes at least one person up.

      Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Peirithus, sadly I agree with you… but, one can but try to open at least one set of eyes and ears. Perhaps… just perhaps… one of my poems will set one person on the path to the truth. The truth matters… and it always gets out… eventually. Thank you for your comment.

      Reply
  19. Satyananda Sarangi

    This poem had to be written, someone had to bring this out. Glad you wrote it, Susan ma’am. Thank you for that kind and compassionate heart of yours.

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Satyananda, it’s lovely to hear from you, and thank you. It heartens me to hear you know exactly where I’m coming from with this difficult poem… it’s from a good place, a place of care and hope. I appreciate your kind words.

      Reply
  20. James Sale

    As always Susan, you don’t seem to lack the ability to turn a trenchant and telling phrase – there are many – but I love the conclusion:
    Slayers with a sympathetic face;
    Saviors paid to cull the human race.

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      James, I am sorry I missed your comment. I’ve just spotted it. Thank you! As you can see from previous comments, the closing couplet was a tough one to write, so your words mean a lot. I will admit to being shocked at the evil deeds people are capable of and also people’s kindness, strength, resilience, and determination to make sure the evil is stamped out. This rally was an eye opener.

      Reply
    • Joshua C. Frank

      I’m not the least bit surprised. Even in 2000, they treated my grandmother like this. I was saying even back then that hospitals are concentration camps. The only silver lining to this is that now people can see it.

      Reply
      • Joshua C. Frank

        I forgot that this was where I already said that in another comment.

    • Joseph S. Salemi

      When the Nazis killed millions in concentrations camps, it was for ideological reasons. When our government does the same via bonus payments to hospitals for using Remdesivir, it is for financial reasons.

      I guess that’s the difference between capitalist society and an ideologically fanatical society. The Nazis kill you because they hate you; the American hospitals kill you because they can make money off you.

      Reply
  24. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    Joe, I have a queazy feeling an evil mix of cash and hatred is behind all you mention – then and now. The Nazis were the global elites’ darlings and had plenty of funding for their eugenics program. The Jews were hated because of their business success and financial status… and every financial asset was stripped from them during the holocaust, including their gold teeth. In our war, the Western world is the target for exactly the same reasons… hatred for the Judeo Christian values it was built on; hatred for the white man who built it; and hatred for its financial success. I think it really is a case of good versus evil… and all good people can do is speak the truth at whatever the cost.

    Back to Remdesivir – Mike tried to prevent doctors dosing a dear relative with this… and that relative chose not to speak to him for eight months. That’s how badly the evil operatives behind the modern day eugenics are… they’ve divided friends, families, working colleagues, neighbors, and nations by pretending to care.

    Reply

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