We thought it was just another bug
someone else’s worry
We had the fire and smoke
bush blazing, devastation 
lost sheep, stranded tourists
Haze and smoke particles
hung On The Beach (Ocean Grove)
in our lungs, hundreds
of miles south from the burning, the
End of the world (as we know it) 

We complained about the 
weather, devastated
Banned from the beach
lost days lazing on sand
and then forgot
Back in the city with the lost
sheep, scampering tweets 
narcissistic turned in souls
drowned in our own worries

But it was something 
that bug
And our worries were nothing
now the sirens wail, roads are
empty, faces pale
With masks and scarfs
drones hover, they see us
huddle, over our backyard fire
bugging, encrypted wires 
Police state

I walk past strangers, smiles
with eyes some nod
A man stopped, we talked and laughed 
looking - a police car roamed 
up streets and down ours
What are they going to do?
we shrugged
a youth walks past
in loss, ears blocked
With noisy silence

At night I lie 
awake to probes and soul quaking
Is God there
a spirit over us
beside, inside
We babble, moan
never staying quite long enough
to listen, to know
a voice, God’s voice?
Be still and know

We thought it was just a bug
another fire
Not climatic pandemic apocalypse 
without economic solutions 
will we still vote
Hope? is knowing salvation
jab the bug, fix the soul
rewired, a cocoon virtual
reality a screen
Emoji impulsive streams

Out of lock down
again 
Matrix
outside
the Real
Žižek says void
virtual, symbolic, androids
not with an A for mobile toys
apples are real

From a tree, gravity
of knowledge to our disease
Augustine (what is a saint?)
confession is good
for the soul
Awake, dawn
birds sing, my heart lifts
be still, my soul
laugh
My God never sleeps

Ocean Grove beach at sunset (bottom) and in smoke haze (top), January 2020 – Photos by Joel Plotnek

Categories: Culture

Tags: COVID-19, Featured, poem