What’s in a name…#lockdownpoem

They called it “the new normal”

We stayed at home, put away

our going out shoes and bags

Got used to seeing

the same faces at every meal

and also in between,

some of us only on screens.

Do they miss us?

The streets we used to clog with our

fume-y automobiles

The seats on the buses and trains

we’ve rested our world-weary bodies on

The street dogs always on the hunt for our scraps

Do they wonder where we’ve all gone?

Well tell them –

We’ve been sitting on rooftops counting clouds

sharing cigarettes and secrets

We’ve been dozing off when we shouldn’t be

our video buttons always turned off

We’ve been talking to strangers we’ll never meet

but swiped right on for their pretty faces

We’ve been pretending our balconies are the new cafes

bringing out our inner aspiring baristas

We’ve been doing all that and more

but mostly, nothing at all.

Shakespeare asked what’s in a name,

I’ll tell you what –

If the “new normal”

was actually called

the “current dystopia”

Would you sit here and do all that?

While people die before their time

fighting for a chance to breathe

Their last rites unattended

Their loved ones – more than six feet away.

There’s nothing normal about this at all.

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Written for the April PAD prompt, day 6, which got me thinking about the all the changes around us.

Photo taken on my rooftop, where I do my cloud-counting from.