See You on the Other Side

(I)

Yesterday
we went outside
to get some fresh air,
maintaining the regulation
distance,
one dead body
separating us.

We whispered to each other
through our megaphones
and sang bad man ballads
like we were back on
the invisible chain gang.

Then, out of nowhere,
The Mystery Machine materialised.
A big booming voice,
like James Earl Jones,
told us all to feck off
and head back home.

A sharpened Frisbee
whizzed narrowly past me,
decapitating the dandelions.

I felt the glare
of a thousand sons of bitches,
so I hitched up my britches
and scat.


(II)

Now we are locking down.
No more flocking down
like sheep to the (super)market.

All those who leave the SAFE ZONE
are liable to be followed
by a pensive yet punctilious Portillo.
"Most trains are cancelled, don'tchaknow?"

Oh brethren and sistren,
the message is clear:
we must all pull together,
like galley slaves
sallying forth
on a voyage of the damned.

Hold hard. Hold out. Hold on.
For come the autumn
we shall have our freedom.
One by one, we shall step
out into the new dawn,
as the two-ply leaves
fall from the bog roll trees

and we will gather in
the harvest of Pot Noodles.

B.R. 25/03/2020




"There's always a little bit of heaven in a disaster area...
...Here comes the choppity-choppity."
Picture by B.R.