Lockdown In A Bedroom Poem by Sheena Blackhall

I am Persephone with the lid on
Hidden away from the world

The mattress in my bedroom is companionable
Moulds to my contours

The rumpled sheets give testimony to boredom
Days shrivel to the size of a window

I could be an Egyptian pharaoh
Entombed in a pyramid

Dead flowers stiffen in a vase
Lace curtains wilt in the heat

Such incarceration would torture
A weasel
A humming bird
An archangel

Health is like porcelain
Easy to crack when older

All who are shielding are Ladies of Shalott
Living in shadows, half lives

Night spreads like a bruise over the face of the sky
Moonlight, corpse-white, limps through the dragging hours