we are in control

Not a poem initially, I wrote the following as a journal entry in early 2020. The pandemic was and is in my mind a ‘parade’; a flurry of grandstanding and great overtures in whose wake a new era of humanity and heart has forced its way in. It has been shattering, but I am hopeful for what comes now.

Watching the news, the year of the Rat sure has been a doozy. We as a rule lose track of the redeeming factors of our existence, but it cannot be disputed that a great many unsettling events are coalescing into what is an impressive cluster-f***.

Poverty and other inequalities are becoming glaringly obvious. The Pandemic is weaving its tendrils through the fabric of society and tearing at any and all faults it finds.

I do give the virus too much agency. I do not blame it for the horrors we now witness and indeed are all touched by. There is no one who does not feel its touch. No, what we are now faced with is the white noise that we chose to ignore, now turned deafening.

The casualisation of our workforces sees staff - women, immigrants, the already disadvantaged - ripped too easily from their “non-essential” jobs, and jammed into queues for meager government assistance, while vested interests with their fingers in little men now experience an astonishing freedom as red and green tape is cut to fasten economic bounce-back. They’ll explode if they aren’t soon bled.

There are calls for a Great Disruption. The democratic movement in Hong Kong, the people’s voice so beautiful and furious shouting to the world to witness their dignity. The Black Rights’ Movement in the U.S., a fight older than borders, the villainy dying far too slowly and taking with it souls who should have had their safety assured in this world. They are the next Reckoning, and I revel in the thought that we will cause a great upset after this parade.