Poetics Tuesday at dVerse, and Brian Miller has
challenged us to create a word picture of
a significant moment. I've chosen to feature
our moment in time, more prose than poem.
Submitted to dVerse
July 14, 2020
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Thousands are dying, robbed of the gift of being surrounded by loved ones in their final hours, their loved ones bereft at the loss of those final moments, equally bereft at their inability to have visitation or funeral where their emptiness might be filled with stories of their dear departed. Isolated in our homes, wearing masks in public, denied of the simplest human touch of hand shake and hug, longing to once again sit amongst peers exchanging life happenings, missing our simple pleasures of dining out with friends, browsing best sellers at the local library, enjoying a current movie, attending church or simply a trip to the grocery store. Churches and schools closed, store shelves emptied for who knows what reason, businesses closed, streets deserted, and life as we knew it suspended as if someone pulled the celestial plug and we’re caught in Pompeiian mid-motion frozen in time. How will we chronicle this time for future generations?. How will it read in history books?
A blog for the midnight epiphanies and idle thoughts of a hopeless wordaholic.
A strange time we are living for sure. I have learned to make my time productive and even take up new hobbies. Learning also what is the essential versus wants, choosing simple but enjoyable activities. Lots of lessons to carry on.
ReplyDeleteI do much the same, Grace, and normally my poetic efforts are upbeat or humorous (I hope), but I felt a need to recapture this moment for my descendants, lest they forget how quickly their world can be altered.
DeleteTough to read and know we are trapped here for an undetermined amount of time.
ReplyDeleteIt breaks my heart to witness what we are going through right now. I agree, "How will it read in history books?"
ReplyDeleteThe upside of this pandemic is that families have drawn closer, and we have (hopefully) learned to reconsider what is really important in our lives. Let us hope it leaves us a kinder, gentler generation.
ReplyDeleteWe never expected to be living through such times, did we, Bev? I can hardly believe it. Things must change soon.
ReplyDeleteThe way we live today is so different, there are things I really like with a smaller world, but there are many things that I miss. Hopefully we will keep the good and move forward keeping the best.
ReplyDeleteStrange days indeed, Bev. I hope that people in the future will read what so many of us have written in tweets, Facebook pages, blogs, stories, poems, compare it with history books and fill in the gaps, to understand it more fully. History books are mostly factual, they can’t convey the emotions of the time. I like the way you describe it as ‘suspended as if someone pulled the celestial plug and we’re caught in Pompeiian mid-motion frozen in time’.
ReplyDeleteFor those who are dying alone these are terrible times and I don't understand the logic, if someone's dying, they are not in danger of catching the virus.
ReplyDeleteAs for the rest of it, they seem to be pretty minor inconveniences compared to what millions have to deal with every day. Maybe that just shows how much of a misanthrope I've become.
And yet it is the very uncertainty of these times that serve to impel us to rise to the challenges and seek out a better existence, to be a better self. ~ Jason
ReplyDeleteAgreed. This was the dark side of the pandemic, but much could be written of the ingenuity and creativity engendered, the benefit of enforced time to consider what's really important, the drawing closer of family and the list goes on.
DeleteThis certainly is a "long and strange" moment. One day people will read it, and try to imagine what we are experiencing now. "It come to pass", and we are the ones waiting for the other side.
ReplyDeleteThis life is all too real for us. Stark portrayal of what we are dealing with.
ReplyDeleteOh you've expressed my thoughts on this Age of Covid so well. I may grump.....but I have it so very easy in comparison to so many. It is a frightening time....but nothing could, I think, be more frightening than being put on a ventilator with only health care personnel to help you through the anxiety...to die alone....to not be able to be with a loved one during their last moments. It is truly a heartless disease.
ReplyDelete