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| Plague Dogs Source Unknown... Somewhere in the Middle Ages |
I watch as they lay siege
to common ground,
man-made palisades
repurposed
into barriers of the mind,
flung up overnight
to sanction
their infectious ideologies.
I see them marching
in bedraggled droves down
deserted streets,
chanting entropic threats of death,
like something reinvented.
When did the light
recede to this hollow space
of empty eyes?
My hometown is currently under siege - literally - cut off from all entry and exit, all commerce and industry suspended, schools forced to close on pain of death as a sector of the community demands the resignation of an allegedly corrupt mayor. Not for nothing is Ladysmith, SA known as Siegetown.
Local News
Current Update on the situation, Friday, March 13
Local News
Current Update on the situation, Friday, March 13
It occurs to me as I endure this enforced "quarantine", that what is happening here is an apt metaphor for what has occurred worldwide, with the furore in response to Covid 19.
"Their infectious ideologies...." Perfect! We are living in strange times. Humanity has lost its way. It sounds as if there is ill health indeed, where you are living, Kerry. I am sorry, and hope there can be resolution and a return to some stability.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your best wishes, Sherry. Seemingly some kind of resolution has been reached today, but we are awaiting clarification. Hopefully things will be back to normal next week, as normal may be in current circumstances.
DeletePraying.
ReplyDeleteAppreciated!
DeleteUpon a second and much closer reading, I now realize how poignantly the images suggest the graveness of a quarantine situation. Sending love and prayers your way, Kerry!💘
ReplyDeleteThank you, Sanaa. We are living in unbalanced times.. just trying to make sense of it all.
DeleteUnbalanced times - you said it. On one side there seems to be anarchy on the other democracy seems to flounder as hyper nationalism takes control - poetry is a refuge in such times of upheaval.
ReplyDeleteSalient commentary, Rajani.
DeleteA poem that cuts many ways, like good poetry does, and can be read as specific or general. I think the fear, the anger and those glazed and empty eyes cover a lot of dangerous, and indeed, infectious ground we all of us inhabit. (sidenote: many here refer to our idiot leader as the Orange infection) We all have much to fear, much to fight, and always, that sliver of hope that change inexorably will come. Common ground seems the scarcest thing of all, some days. A pleasure, as always, to read your poems of clarity and strength.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Joy. I appreciate your insights. It is always enlightening, one way or the other, to watch how the multitudes respond to crises. It takes very little to trigger the medieval mayhem.
DeleteFirst reading, I thought this was about a cornovirus quarantine, but it's political violence that has things shut down, right? The same "barriers of mind" and "infectious ideologies" will make the virus response just as difficult, as we are learning here in the US. Much light does recede now ... Brendan
ReplyDeleteThanks, Brendan. A very strange time we are living through. Much tinder for the flames, as fires of a different nature burn on.
DeleteTake care of yourself out there.
The last three lines, in particular made me shiver (again). They bring to mind the biological and political situation in New York. The quarantine, due to the coronavirus is quite public in my area. But more insidious (and seemingly ignored by too many) is how certain organizations are using the pandemic to keep immigrants and refugees out of the country and to deports illegal immigrants (often without giving them access to counsel). Your ending lines get me because I can't remember the last time I saw so many people looking at other humans' suffering... and acting as if they felt nothing.
ReplyDeleteThere is always more than one agenda in play.. what you have shared here is very unsettling.
DeletePowerful writing connecting the political and the "neutral" act of containment - you remind us that nothing is neutral. Also I read that violence has continued after the mayor going on 'sick leave' - so best wishes for a peaceful solution to your troubled town.
ReplyDeleteThere has been no violence since the Friday, April 13 resolution but on Sunday, April 15, the whole of South Africa was declared a state of disaster, and containment for the spread of Covid 19 is in place. So I am still 'in quarantine'.
Delete