A regular Monday morning with a little twist.
filled with anxiety and fear.
The urge not to come to work growing harder each day to resist.
A new strain of a virus has everyone squirming on the train
A cough could be the signal for the end, it's getting harder to man up and pretend.
Escaping from across the world and the globe comes to a stand still.
Yet here we are ignoring the fact that a virus is real
Anxiety and depression begin to creep as Australia runs out of an antidepressant pill.
Locked down nowhere to go, can't see family not even one friend! time and space begin to bend. The weeks turn into months. A cold winter approaches and encroaches on our dreams, an entire year frozen in fear.
Kids shout and scream as the work load begins to teem I'm running out of steam trying to maintain the Australian dream.
I'm in my 30s is this the end? I haven't even begun to reach my full potential or realise me existential living.
I hold my child dear as another arrives, I shed a tear.
A son we get to bring home as my life begins to form, but I feel torn.
Work from home you must, but workers lack any trust. come into the city our profits are low I couldn't care less if this virus made you glow.
Greed continues to feed the rich and their baseless need to get workers back into the city. Death just for an economic lunch washed down with a COVID punch.
Oh no, my house price, oh no my investments on thin ice, oh no I've missed my mortgage repayment twice. No one cares about the last one, just some handed down wealth to a prodigal son.
Jobkeeper kept the inner city elite able to gloat, while jobseeker is where mum and dad businesses went and can't even keep a float.
The economic divide from haves to have nots is rooted in how far your voice can travel, how far will we go before it begins to unravel?
Stats and data ignored as CBD businesses continue to soar but in the burbs homes a left torn, with a 30% economic reduction leading to the family model destruction. Increasing economic pressure causing a spike in family violence, we all need a mental health refresher.
The poor get poorer and risk their health, while the business class forces everyone to death by stealth.
Back into the city you must, back into the city you have to, back into the city or else, back into the city so I can steal your health, wealth and life, goodness grief Australia is in strife!
Taking orders from a government that can't even vaccinate a suburb, but they're already getting worried about the inner city pay.
We've learned so much, we've learned so little now that economic lunch is coming down to the crunch.
95% of workers resisting the call to return, anger in the elites belly's burn, no one wanting to jump on the COVID train for a turn.
What will tomorrow bring? What song will they make us sing?
Only time will tell, but what's certain is that alot of people will be going to hell.
Devil and Golf image sourced from Canva other images taken by me
Thank you to @riverflows for the awesome contest about COVID Poetry. I needed to do abit more work on this but it's been a few days already and I've cut a fair bit out of it. Trying to find time between work, kids and COVID life is quite challenging.
I hope you enjoy my contribution to this wonderful challenge!
You feel the anguish that this virus produces, it surprises you. You practically run away when you see someone sneeze, or worse if they cough. We are every day more alone, distancing ourselves from family and friends. All is very true what you capture in those lines.
Thank you, it has been an absolute nightmare and a fearful one.
I hope with God's favor that this ends, in my country this is very ugly.
'Squirming' is such a good word - how awkward was a cough or a sniffle in those early days!
Yeah it was totally weird time wise wasn't it - it kinda just stood STILL! And then winter came - we were all paralysed.
You really capture that anxiety of needing to work and how COVID made the class divide really clear - it was fine for the rich who had their pools and their nest eggs and the white collar workers who COULD work from home but it was harder on the rest of Australia. I could feel your simmering anger that voiced the anger of many in the worst of it - and the after shock is still rippling!
I know it's super hard to find time to do this, so I appreciate it - what a BOOM response - thankyou! I won't be compiling the final one for a few weeks yet, so if you do decide to edit just let me know so I can come back to it. Cheers matie!
You're welcome, I'm glad you liked it.
It was and still is a very class oriented virus, insecure work from those who had to work experienced the greatest blow from the Virus. Yet here we still are many being forced to return to the city to work just to bolster the cities economy
What I love about this challenge is even in 3 poems you get different aspects of our feelings about the pandemic - breaking out of the prison of our confinement in our imagination, the heartfelt desire to be with loved ones when we couldn't, and in Australia, the class divide in a more political poem. Really can't wait to see more poetry come out over the next few weeks and really hoping others will join in. I find it so powerful - a real record of these times.
I'll have to get reading a few more, words can be quite powerful and they do give you an insight into a person's view or life. Be good to maybe make a book or compile a list of good ones.
This was awesome. I'm sorry I'm too late to give it an upvote, but !BEER
I was reading it imagining you saying it as spoken word poetry the whole time.
Sorry, out of BEER, please retry later...