Everything is upside down.
The silence is deafening.
My blues are red.
I’m wide awake
But I haven’t left my bed.

I’m losing it.
Lockdown’s making me grip
At every vice
Prepared to be abusing it.

I hear voices with no faces,
I speak to them too,
But no one wants to hear you
Scream in the safespaces
That they grew.

They’re fighting their own struggles,
We all are in fact.
So slap on the tact
And try to be the puzzle piece
That they lack.

Is this a prison sentence?
Is this karma?
Seeing as we’re all begging for shots
Now from the big pharma.

I’m scared of would-be survivors,
Scared of what I’d see.
The mask behind the mask
What’d you think there would be?

Ordeals of isolation,
Ordeals of depression,
Ordeals of the aftermath
Of a pandemic recession.

In that, maybe there’s hope after all.
That in knowing you’re no exception,
You’re not alone, to trip, to fall,
To survive, to stand tall,
To be a part of a bigger redemption.

Cover image by Amin Moshrefi on Unsplash