Mixing Media with miles

They did not die in the hurricane.

They died in pain, at home, of kidney failure unable to access the dialysis clinic for weeks.

They died, gasping for hours near the end, when the oxygen tank they needed to breathe gave out.

They died in the dark and the heat of unsanitary ICU units, of burns or gunshot wounds received before the hurricane that they almost certainly would have survived otherwise.

They died, burning up with fever, of leptospirosis from being in touch with flood waters during the effort to save their neighbors.

They died in fear and confusion after being forced to go off their regular medication.

They died of heat stroke.

They died of diseases of antiquity, in a crisis is of neglect unworthy the greatest, wealthiest and most powerful nation in human history.

They died. But we lived. And we remember.   ~ Eleazar David Melendez