Poetry: Leonard Dabydeen

NOT IN THE LEAST WHAT I EXPECTED

Not in the least what I expected

Or hoped for

But my sons spoke to me

In their separate ways

To either demonstrate care

Or concern for being their Dad

They put me under locked-down

With their Mom, of course

In a house I call my last retreat

Or home, as it were, to set myself

Free at last – yes! Free at last!

They said to me that at my age

I am absolutely qualified

To be certified positive for COVID-19

They said it is a pandemic killing machine

Invisible to the eye, but sensitive to my lungs

And so they quarantined Father and Mother

In masks and unflinching social distancing

One in the kitchen, the other in the living-room

And us parents spin the coin of Life

To herald our fate, nothing to lose

But Time to solicit our survival

Myself in the kitchen

Mom on a sofa,

Focused on Krsna consciousness

Glowing in slokas of Bhagavad Gita

Mantras and bhajans  cheerful

Songs of my soul

Feats of Sundarakanda

Listening attentively

I wonder

How long will this last

Oh quarantined man?

A VISION

(haiku)

Painting a vision

living in a new normal

moon emerald niche.

BEAT IT

That

this

virus

will be strong

on the impotent

will not recce life  eternally.

By grit determination, we

shall break through its hold

social distancing

face mask

beat

it.

Leonard Dabydeen, Guyanese-Canadian  free-lance writer,  poet, and book reviewer. Author of Watching You, A Collection of Tetractys Poems (2012); A Collection of Tetractys and Fibonacci  Poems (2015).

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Local 2020 :: Setu, June 2020