In 2020 and 2021 I was hesitant to post many of my poems that referenced covid. I didn’t want people to think I was ‘profiteering’ from the disease or pain & suffering that it brings. Or that I lacked the imagination to move on from the already hackneyed theme.
I have realised over the last wee while though, as an artist, I need to be able to express what’s on my mind and reflect on the times we are living in. You may not agree with my anti-antivax stance or my view that we will see more diseases like this in the future (not as a result of Big Pharma or Big Net, but because nature always works to re-establish equilibrium). Thank you for continuing to read in search of the elements that do resonate with you.
Walking down memory lane
A grey shroud lies over the city
Despite a clear blue sky
Shop fronts stark
For rent signs outnumber
"Sale Now On" window displays.
I walk these unfamiliar familiar streets
The quietness is unnerving
We are holding our collective breath
As we count QCode registrations
Wondering if the person we meet
has been exposed, if we've been exposed.
Anxious dry hands reach for sanitiser at the thought.
The lip stick stained mask of a rookie
Reminds me for a time when
this was all novel
Do you remember when novel could be
a good thing - in a book or on screen?
But the written is now real,
it has cometh to life
And even the hand God would need
to be sanitised.
Angele Toomey Poetry 