S FOR SOCIAL DISTANCING
What if you
wanted to
keep me
at arm's length
anyway?
D for Domestic Violence
As if the sickness outside
has entered here: the fear,
the choking, the gasping
for breath. But no, that one
is silent and invisible, named,
with an exit strategy.
For this one
the 'shadow pandemic'
there is only
the uncertainty,
the battering,
the shivering,
the fear,
the choking,
the gasping,
for breath.
And
this
blocked exit.
A FOR ADJUSTMENT
Refugees do it every day
Slip into the unknown
alone, maybe,
withstand what we will never know
heading for the Promised Land.
And we who live in the Promised Land
now have a taste of it.
Not of what they have endured, no way.
Just a twinge of
that gut-wrenching
seismic shift.
O FOR ONE
As one alone, I sometimes wish I were with another
or two or three in lockdown together.
But then again, I think maybe the two or three
in lockdown together by now are wishing
they were one, alone.
B FOR BREATHE
It takes one's breath away: a man dying during a pandemic
that takes away one's breath, no ventilator but one brave
spectator, recording
his last breath, his need please
somebody
taking the knee on the neck from men who from birth
breathed in tainted air, imbibed a foul history, burning
crosses
still smouldering
i can't breathe
like the hot breath of anger consuming the cities
we have breathed this before
this white heat this
burning sensation in the throats of
the numerous ones held down and
mama mama i cant
Come on, George Floyd, breathe in the timeless rhythm
of Mother Earth waiting for you, for all her lost children,
for justice
I'm through
I'm through
R FOR RIDDLE
It cannot be seen but it permeates our lives
It cannot walk but we enable it to travel
It has no body but it captures our breath
It has no teeth but it conquers flesh
lt plants nothing but it harvests souls
It has no authority but it forces isolation
It has no voice but it commands every nation
What is it?
Y FOR YOUTH
The gap between young and old is widening.
Old people are living longer, and - some youth
complain - sucking up too much air. Don't worry,
coronavirus
is now taking care
of that.
They say
the aged are the carriers of a dying culture
the young the bearers of a new world order.
The wheels just
keep turning.
Every revolution
has its roots in history.
Youth and age might not always agree
but there is no fruit without a tree.
C FOR CONCERT
This is not something I can keep mum about.
The Barcelona Liceu Opera House will reopen
on Monday with a string quartet playing Puccini's
Chrysanthemums to a packed audience
consisting of 2,292 potted plants.
The artistic director said he felt it appropriate to stage
this concert for the Biocene, with nature filling spaces
left empty by isolating humans. To whom the concert
will be livestreamed.
Although the plants might find the concert hall a bit
small after the great outdoors, I'm sure they will conduct
themselves with decorum; just the discreet nod, wave,
or palms put together, like any audience.
Nature is used to moving to its own rhythm anyway
and flowers are probably bored with serenades
from bumblebees and other suitors. They should find this
a welcome diversion.
It might start a trend. Soon, plants will be ordering up
their own jazz band from New Orleans, or reggae
recordings, or rappelling the four best soloists
from the Heavenly Choir.
R FOR RACIST ROBOTS
No. I. Am. Not. Making. This. Up.
Algorithms used by US courts for risk assessment
to reoffend are found to have a racial bias.
Just one example of how Artificial Intelligence
is already infected with the virus of inequality.
AI learns to predict by studying previous reports
to find patterns - information
that is already infused with human prejudices,
Garbage in. Garbage out.
To enter that Brave New World of AI,
we first need to deprogram humankind.
The future is tied to the past. AI, after all, is us.
B FOR BREAD
The housebound
rediscovering
kneading dough as
the simplest of pleasures.
Making bread with
time on our handsl
a substitute for the touch
we are so wanting
while fashioning
the staff of life.
G FOR GAMBLE
The hazard now is how to balance
risk versus necessity,
Do we dare or
Do we dare or
Do we dare to go out there
and throw the dice
play the gamel
Or do we sit at home along playing
Solitaire.
N FOR NEGOTIATE
This word has come down in the world, the pandemic
shifting it from the formal sphere of business
to the social and domestic.
Everything in life has to be negotiated now.
Should I go?
Should I stay?
Should I send my child to school?
Virtual or real?
How should I meet and greet?
Not the recklessness of gambling with our lives but
the perplexity of making the right choices.
From our leaders, the only answers are non-negotiable:
HANDS. FACE. SPACE.
There is no outside help for it,
Covid-19 forces individual bargains with the unseen.
Nevertheless, there's hope for you.
Negotiate also means
finding a way through.
T
h
e
g
a
p
b
e
t
w
e
e
n
y
o
u
n
g
xxx