The Corona Quiet
So quiet the land –
the lanes, the paths
the leafy glades.
Where in the air
viral shadow evades
surgeon scalpel blades.
Corona cripples cursed confused countries,
Crying out for medicine and medicals.
Rage against a parasite
That Earth itself has sent.
Covid 19 coursing, carousing, carelessly carefree
through the blood of this us –
This dominant species.
Powerless to prevent
As we carelessly collectively collect on corners.
Will we die of ignorance?
Or heedlessness ?
And as smoke rises from the ashes
of what is left of us
like a
mad mocking double helix
of the virus
that claimed
us…
How we will move on?
2020
I sat in the garden at the back of the house just into the first lockdown, (spring 2020) and was suddenly struck by the total quiet across the land. Nothing. Only the sound of birds. No planes or cars or people anywhere for miles. And I wondered if we, as a species, would learn from the crisis, or would one of the tiniest, simplest species known, outlive us.
PUBLISHED at the Festival For Poetry June 2020