Closing Doors...

CLOSING DOORS

Wake up and for a split second – just before the “OH FUCK!”
I feel like I did...
before this COVID
overtook all the thinking space
it’s like the day after mum died
and the days that followed that
where that waking moment
...was the most precious of all
holding within it
a glimpse, memory, reminder
of what it was like
...when it all felt so damned ‘normal’

Then comes the fall…
The tumble down hard landing
into the realisation that there’s
isolation! Bloody iso-bloody-lation! FFS
what happened to our days and ways of being that now seem like distant dreaming?

Some fight it, deny it, claim they’re bigger and ballsier than any virus,
can take it on the chin, whoop its arse and put it behind us
others lay low, go quiet, anxiety rampaging their days
fear stalking the dark of their nights.

Little by little till it’s seeping in under our skin
filtering through our veins
straining the ways of our usual being
till our grip on comfort is lost
...feeble hands clasping at a past that can’t bring
anything into this fearful new world.

Pubs closed, distance kept
true figures swept under carpets
soap opera storylines abruptly paused
and all about, closing doors