Dystopian Poem by Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih

We groan under the weight of Corona
the disruptions it has brought
the fear it has instilled in every heart
the cruelties surging from that fear:
villages driving people coming home
into the jungles
cities forbidding people to leave
people with no place to stay
with no money and no food
people walking for hundreds of desperate miles
people driven to suicide.

The selfishness and the greed
lurk in every shop
in every street.

The lockdown is a cure worse than the sickness.
The fear is worse than the plague.

We may all be free from Corona's fatal touch
for 21 days
but how will those without the means
be free from hunger, disease, starvation
for 21 days?
The fear of getting sick is making people die.
Thieves and murderers will stalk the nights.

The cure is worse than the sickness.

Oh, I hate it, that is true, Nameri
and the worst thing it has done to me
is to take you away from me.

And I don't even know
when you will return
or in what frame of mind.

The nights are pitiless
they stare at me
I stare at them
and neither of us will ever know relief
until you set us free again.

The silence it has brought
into the streets
the silence it has brought
into the engines of growth:
I love the clear skies I can now see
even in the dirtiest of cities.
Change is possible
we may yet save the earth
Corona has shown us that.

And it's not even as monstrous
as some things I have known.

If you are a poet in love with easeful death
you would also embrace it if it comes.