Strange Summer Poem by Sheena Blackhall

This morning the city's noises
Are like whale songs smothered by fathoms
Solitary cars slidefurtive into car parks

In the street, there is total silence
Apart from the caws of crows, the screech of gulls
Walkers are as thin on Sground as herons

Neighbours hide behind walls
That old man who leans on his fence
Is he infected?
Is he an innocent carrier of death?

Parliament issues warnings that some choose to ignore
Behind closed doors a woman cowers in fear
A plate is smashed like a splintered rib
Against a splattered floor

Worriers panic, huddle and rock in corners
Others take to their beds, blankets over their heads
Trying to sleep through the terrors of a pandemic

Proximity being banned
We look at the world throughpeepholes
Like a mariner in a submarine
Sliding through a malevolent soup of virus