Category: current affairs

Time To Cruise Is Not Now

Is there an itinerary for this lockdown?
I watch as engagements line up

Adventure-seekers, eager to connect
willingly engage, purchase a ticket

How I would give my life to be a part
hop aboard a sailing ship, escape

Except disability has recalled my passport;
I am a vehicle without fuel, grounded

Disappointment and I watch as
familiar faces venture out –

a friend’s brother
an old crush
a high school acquaintance

While envy reminds me
I’m always an outsider
Sensibility wakes me up

This boat I’m missing out on
is no luxury cruise ship, but
a dalliance with death –

I surrender to isolation
count the casualties.

( Image my own.)

Snakes at My Door

A preacher dominates
six o’clock news
megaphone voice
commanding protest
mask-less hordes roar

A young repairman
offs his mask with distaste
claims it’s all a hoax,
the cure is withheld
a ploy to control –
read it on the internet.

A friend whose wisdom
and words have inspired
confesses she’ll not accept
vaccination, as her life
is in God’s hands.

And from behind a curtain
of despair, I observe
as words, like snakes
gather on my front step
nest in a writhing menace

The virus’ venom
a poison I’m not sure
I can defeat

And what am I to do
when abstinence from public life
makes me conveniently invisible

and fear that if I speak up
will reveal a truth I cannot bear
that the devout, the young, the compassionate
care not a wink for the likes of me.

Gobsmacked

Remaining silhouette
of a leader –
hero was expected –
instead, hit with quirkiness

Unaffected by indifference
accepting his alibis
his ego bloodies
we remain strangers

Ride along
as hive buzzes lies
he sulks at refusals
commands attention

Reputation shredded
still holds appeal
gobsmacked intelligence –
and so it goes on.

(Image my own.)

Remain Steadfast

Illusory this ideation of separation
intricate the webs that bind us

Politicians focus on the holes
pander to the vacuous –

Seekers resonate with connection
consciousness raising awareness

Remain steadfast protestors
your vibrations wide-reaching.

(submitted for Reena’s Exploration challenge: prompt the featured image.)


I Wave, Maintain Distance

Feels so clinical
this measuring
of distance

Neighbours congregate
camaraderie a pull

I hide behind glass
record temperature
blood pressure

Underlying conditions
condemn closeness

Laughter of mask-less
trickles through panes

I pray for strength
clarity of purpose
refrain from joining in.

(For Eugi’s Weekly prompt:  neighbour)