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missanthrope Jan 2022
A hallelujah for
classes with masks
I'm basking in
masked yawns,
masked frowns,
half-opened lips
dreaming of soda sips.
Jocelyn Dec 2021
"Happy New Year!" they say
as they sip their champagne.
Each bubble,
last year's sorrow,
to be lost in the new tomorrow

Let the new year ring out
as they kiss and laugh and shout.
Each balloon,
is a latex vessel for resilience,
feeding the emotion coloured chameleons.

As if the "new year, new me" attitude
should terminate the blues and
help us to forget the cold, harsh, truth.
No matter what the new year's resolution,
there will be no retribution.
Anais Vionet Nov 2021
In my psychology class we looked at some recent studies on how the pandemic has changed people. Apparently there’s a new breed of post-pandemic man. This new strain is more grown up, well-rounded and getting more sleep. They’ve experienced intellectual growth in lock-down, they’ve taken up hobbies and gained in self confidence. It seems they’re looking less for *** and more for long-term stability and partnership in relationships.

I’m hoping they’ll be easy to identify - maybe they’ll wear those old punk DEVO hats or Billy Porter dresses to set themselves apart. I really want to see one of these new overlords. I hope they’re not skittish.
oh, the cold eye of science
Lucy Schofield Nov 2021
Fingers tapping, one, two, three,
A slow rhythm drums in my chest.
The words on my screen blur and fade before me.
The world slows as we are put to the test.

The streets, barren and eerily silent,
Darkened windows, chairs on tables.
Places once filled with noise now absent.
Are we now living in one of God's fables?

Perhaps, then, we must stop and listen,
Listen to the lessons He is teaching us all.
These drastic measures, so brazen,
Yet we are close to the edge, were we to fall?

See kindness and beauty,
See all that is good,
As Mother Nature breathes freely,
Tired from all She withstood.

Laughter and bored games,
Brought together by distance,
Whilst the air, the water, She reclaims,
No more waiting, no more patience.

Yes, waters clear as emissions drop;
A truly beautiful consequence.
But we must not forget - take the time to stop,
Extend our minds to at whose expense.

Unemployment creeps ever higher,
Many lives are lost.
For those a dark and terrible chapter,
Enduring such a saddening cost.

The good that lies within,
The beauty of humankind,
Rainbows, clapping, togetherness underpin,
Our world, our people, our priorities realigned.

So listen we must,
To our animals, our rivers, our Earth.
Look to your nearest and dearest,
Use this time to recognise their full worth.
Anais Vionet Oct 2021
I met someone exciting the other day. We’re in an English class together, twenty of us, the class is really about chaos. Attraction can spring from nothing (talk about chaos). We had split into discussion groups and we were next to each other.

The abruptness of it surprised me - I felt the realization, a tingle that ran through me like a wave. I actually twitched, shivered really.

I’m still getting used to people, after the great pandemic separation. I know there were people who carried on as if it weren’t real. My parents, both doctors, took it very seriously. I was “sheltered in place,” like Rapunzel, with shorter hair. For over a year - it seemed longer.

So I haven’t felt this way in a while - this crushy feeling. Near him, my whole body is a receptor, very aware of everything about him - the smell of him alone saturates my senses. Everything about him seems vibrant, revelatory.

He opens doors sometimes, he brought me coffee - twice. He’s started covering the seat next to him and clears it when I arrive so I can sit next to him. He asks questions about my life. He’s polite but persistent, like a newspaper reporter. He’s from Nebraska, a farm boy (19, a man?), he has a dreamy accent and he’s funny.

I wish I could be around him more. Even thinking about it makes my heart race as though I were confessing a secret. But the fact is, it’s impossible. It’s too soon, we just got here. The wish itself is a burden.

Why do I have to be ruthlessly practical all the time? It *****.
Fall break this week - thank God.
Ritz Writes Oct 2021
Painting glossy images of life and
laughter
sitting near the window thinking about what has gone and what could have happened;

folded hands in prayers restless minds over sleepless nights counting stars over wishes to push the button~ renew, restart and rebuild.

Alarm rings to wake us from unsettling nightmares
Chores and stern face to pursue for bills await and responsibility to ensue.

When the night crawls in
the cyclic pain begins.
"Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things.." ~ T.S. Eliot
Xaela San Oct 2021
My passion got lost
I don't feel it anymore
I'm trying to take it back
Now I'm lost
I'm trying to find my way back.
The pandemic got me so bad. I think I'm lost now. I don't feel the same passion I love before.
Pauline Celerio Oct 2021
I have always longed for peace like
how I have always thought of peace:
Calmness, stillness, and serenity
all at once after a raging storm.
But I have taken for granted another form
that has always been there before:
—a piece of peace in my favorite tune,
a piece of peace when I look at the moon,
a piece of peace in my covers’ warmth,
a piece of peace that gives the heart
a chance to fight again, to love again,
a piece of peace that wills me to stand up to live again.
In these trying times, these small pockets of peace in the mundane things is what wills me to not lose hope for the better.
Big Virge Sep 2021
Now When I Was Young...
Athletic And Strong...
I Really Did Love...
A Good Game of Ping Pong... !!!

Or That’s Right Table Tennis... !!!

But I Say This To Preface...
This... Poetic Message...

Do I Need A PING...
To Say I’m Infectious... !!!

Pings That Now STING...
Like This Corona Menace... !!!

That Now Will Send Endless...
PINGS That Now PONG...
When Their Message Is WRONG...

I Mean What’s Going On... ?!?

Do All These Pings Belong...
In A World Where It’s Said...
That We’re Now Seeing Less...
of This Need To Inject...
Or A Need To Prolong...

Distancing Measures...
As Lockdowns Are Lessened...
Because of A Drop...
In The Rate of Infections... ?!?

And Because of These Apps...
That Can Chart And Can Map...
Infections BEFORE...
You Know That You’ve Caught...

A Variant Form...
of This Corona Force... !?!

Have The Tables Now Turned...
So Corona Gets Burned...
And No Longer Fills Urns... ?!?

Or Are We Being Served...
A Whole Load of Spin...
About All of These PINGS... !?!

When PM’s REFUSE...
To Start... Isolating... ?!?

Because I’m Confused...
By Reports In The News... ?!?

Where Their Tables Now Show...
That Corona Has Slowed...
Because These Pings Know...
Where It Is... People Go...

Because of Our Phones... !!!

And Now Know Who It Is...
We’ve Been In Contact With...
So Can Trace Virus Strains...
That Are In People’s Veins...

Doesn’t It Seem Insane... ?!?
That We Have Track And Trace...
... All Over The Place... !!!

But STILL Have To Wear Masks...
To... COVER Our Face... ?!?

Or Okay Yes... Our Mouths... !!!

Does The Logic Seem Sound...
Profound And Thought Out... ?!?

Or Something Thrown Around...
Just Like Circus Clowns...
To Keep People Tied Down...
Controlled And Now Bound...
Like Some Kind of Bad Hound... ?

Are All These Pings CORRECT...
Or A Way To DIRECT...
People To... INJECT... ?!?

Because of The THREAT...
of A Quarantine Bed...
Or Being... Jobless... !?!

Because of A PING...
That Tells You To Stay...
AWAY From Working...
And Earning A Wage...

The Table’s Not Straight...
Like These Government Names...
And Their Government Games...

Are We All Being Played...
And FORCED To Vaccinate... ?!?

Because of These PINGS... !!!

Surely Something Must Give...
In People’s Thinking... ?!?

When Tech Like This Gives...
Us... BAD Messages... !!!
That Claim To Predict...
When We Will Become Sick...

It’s A Form of Sickness...
That Clearly Is Linked...
To Making Us Live...
In A World That RESTRICTS...
Because of These Pings... !?!

That Come From Our Phones... ?
Cos’ It ISN'T A Joke...
To Be Told Stay At Home...
By An App That Now Tracks...
And Apparently Can...

Diagnose Better Than...
These People In Labs... !?!

Who Still Don’t Seem Sure...
of How Variants Form...

So Are Saying Be WARNED... !!!
Cos’ These Vaccines DON'T CURE...
Or Stop Us From Getting...
... Corona Infected... !!!

Because You’ve Had Shots...

Their Singing Dud Songs...
UNLIKE... What’s Going On... !!!

And Do Not Seem Able...
To Stop Telling Fables...

It Feels Like A Game...
Where We’re Being Played...
Because of False Claims...
About This Flu Strain... !!!

I Wish I Could Say...
That Things Will Be Okay...

But Something Seems Off...
Cos’ Corona’s Not Gone...
Or Taking A Break And Going Away... !!!

Which Brings Me Right Back...
To The Days of My Youth...

When Things Weren’t So Bad...
And Filled With This Flu...
That’s Causing Problems...
For Us In... Multitudes... !!!!!

I Just Wish I Could...
Go Back To Those Days...
When I Was In School...

And Saw Nothing Wrong...
With Hearing The Sounds...

of A Game of......

..... “ Ping Pong “..... !!!
Inspired by the farcical, track and trace rollout in the UK, and the ping frenzy that initially came with it....
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