Sunday 21 June 2020

Lockdown Lesson 2




I do not give up hope, though no feathered
thing sits and sings at my open windows,
which look out on a washing line, tethered
to my neighbour’s balcony, dingy rows
of plastic strings and pegs, the deep shadows
of my own building on it, fallen forward –
a skyline toppled, downed like dominos.
A word game where hope can’t finish the word.


The only thing that flies in is a raptor
with blood on its beak, the sharpest claws
scrabbling the old panels of the railing.
It leaves bloodstains. Hope is not the chapter
nor verse of its song, I lean and listen close.
I don’t give up an inch, but it sings nothing.

13 comments:

  1. Ouch.
    My hope is a fragile flicker of light. A flicker which is often (too often)quenched by anger and despair.
    Hope reignites somehow but how I long for it to blaze rather than flicker.

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    1. I'm with you, EC! I'm keeping a flicker alive too, but I'm tired of having to guard it so desperately.

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  2. Watching the fireflies in my yard. Hoping a factor doesn't fly in.

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  3. Hari OM
    Desperate times bring on desperate words... YAM xx

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  4. Hope can seem so fleeting right now.

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  5. That's a dark one, but certainly sadly too true.

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  6. Yes this lockdown is showing many things . Everybody are facing the good and bad . Let this get over soon .stay safe

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, you take care and stay safe too.

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  7. Hi Nila - that waiting for the hope v loss ... I do feel for those living with that fear. Lockdown lessons - too many of them ... I have been feeling for you ... Hilary

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