by Madhuri RaviPandemic

PANDEMIC by Madhuri Ravi

There are too many people at home We all bump into each other Uncomfortably like strangers in the subway and look away the pieces of our home we have claimed for ouselves are no longer scared there’s someone else sitting there like a hideous rock in a well mowed lawn

twenty one days is a long time until today, i had no-one to talk to and it was better that way even though i spoke to myself like i’m three people in one now all my conversations are littered with stories of brahmnical glory and the importance of worship

i can’t walk out the door like i used to crammed in together we have no choice but to look our differences in the eye and fume in silence

The news blares in to our ears but we know it’s nowhere near the truth the government isn’t doing enough and my father is the most scared of us all he won’t let me touch my nose when it’s itchy even though i haven’t left the apartment in five days he brews every concoctoion he can think of alcoholic tintures against COVID-19 sanitizers on every table dettol on every sink

Maddening as it is to pace a small apartment till the linoleum wears down, the impending doom that hangs over the heads of those squatting their lives away In slums, Cheap settlements, Minimum wage jobs, sends chills down my spine the whole world is sick it feels like the end, the scramble to buy as much as possible and hoarding it in neat little homes Watching, if our neighbours Cough and kneel ashes,ashes We all fall down.