Cage Free

The emotion within me rather strange

Ensconced in my thoughts for so long

Not sure if outdoors I belong

Now COVID has gone, and I am cage free

There’s nothing to hold me back, but me

Simple pleasures of life denied

running chores, going to work, meeting a friend 

hanging out without fear or doubt

I am born again, I dare say

This quarantine has taught me how to pray

Church is filled

I look around

Joy and hope is abound

Grocery shops, malls and beaches packed

There’s an air of calm despite the rush

One lesson we learned: kindness and compassion

this invisible enemy it took to crush

But, human memory is short lived

Road rage, bullying, speeding, screaming

Lying, cheating, division, derision soon begin

Thank goodness, we are back to normal

All this love and kindness was making me sick, like an unwelcome tick

Covid, A fleeting memory of the past

Must be first, I can’t be last.

Standing for hours in line for a black Friday sale

Shoving  and jostling to get to the front

Hours of screaming sounding like grunts

And just in a snap, the unthinkable happens-Bringing all the madness to a full stop.

T’was was the very thing that brought us to our knees

The dreaded COVID sneeze

2020- A year of Clarity!

Just a few months ago

The champagne popped, we were giddy with glee

Ushering a New Year, with no cause for fear

2020, we screamed, with jokes galore

As we laughed away, not knowing what lay in store

2020 vision for you and for me

Oh what a year of clarity it would be

Laughter filled the air, and none had a care

Ironically, how blinded we would be in 2020,

But then, it was too hard for us to see

With jobs, economy, stock markets

And “ME, MINE and I” on the rise

Yes, self-centeredness does come with a price

In a race against time, 24 hours a day not enough

Oh we needed more- to make more stuff

In a race, just running here and there

All without fear, of it being taken away

And suddenly, it struck- a virus came from afar

As if it were a shooting star

Bringing life to a pause

And life as we know it, soon came to a halt

As everyone echoed- It wasn’t our fault

No malls, No games, No theatres to go

No parks, No ballet, Non-essential places, no more

Grocery shops the only place to be

To line up and buy till the eye can see

People losing jobs, and some on furlough

Tough times ahead, a cause of much dread

The only way to fight this scourge

A commandment of love that we knew all too well

But seldom followed, it wasn’t too swell

Love thy neighbor as thyself- the prescription today

To defeat this virus each and every day

Be mindful and caring and generous of heart

To fight COVID, selfishness must depart

This virus did strike each of us in its own way

It got us to think what matters the most,

No longer the things of which we boast

But family and friends, we should cherish the most

Vital lessons it did teach us

Make more with less

Oh, how wasteful we had become, we must truly confess

COVID-19 taught us what’s important all right,

By gradually exposing our inner plight

And bestowing upon us our much needed sight

It humbled the whole world

On bended knee, looking heavenward -Making a plea