Love In The Time Of Corona

around nine-thirty in the evening
the setting sun peach melba
masked like a bank robber skiing
i had to be somewhere
a nowhere to be precise
the police did not stop me
wearing a mask it is presumed is only basic good manners now
it means you are a taxpayer
a moving piece of herd-wallpaper
or it means you are a very cunning bank robber
pretending to be a taxpayer blending in endorsing the absurdist theatre
and so i journeyed thus to a faceless building
tilting at facial recognition cameras
the night was young and she was waiting
with a pump-action sanitiser
just like in the movies
or maybe not..

in the distance a couple holding hands
were ambling in my direction
lovers strolling in the eerie emptied streets
they saw me and..a beat..
             elegantly danced a few metres apart from one another
slow-step and a quarter turn each way
an invisible daisy chain stretched between them
about two metres
so that one end pulled near me
and by their air-bubble rosary i was glanced a ming vase ricochet..

and after passing them
i turned to see their concertina contract
then part..then contract
confounding another passing stranger
with or without a mask..

It Started With A Viral

so many perspectives
so many experts..

and because the mockingbird media deceive in so many ways
i refuse to believe even the opposite of what they portray
and that reflexive nudge to the controlled opposition
have you noticed how many times that has been at play
i examine their frames outside their given frames
that vast empty gallery wall has a few stories to tell
redacted manuscripts deleting even more ancient scrolls 
and it is okay to say i do not know
sometimes it might be the most intelligent and honest thing to say
and know..

stay at home
save the nhs
save lives
smash the economy
lose your job
lose your home
many suicides
                   might save the nhs
and the disaster capitalist asset strippers
will clean up all the fiat monopoly money
hunger games down at the gulag casino
that eerie silence is a heads-up..

next slide..

down at the supermarket badlands
a customer enters to return half a trolley of toilet rolls
the till supervisor shakes her head no
crestfallen the customer leaves ~ tumbleweed
a funeral procession for 3-ply fortified with aloe vera
serenaded by neil diamond singing sweet caroline
fizzing out the supermarket speakers..
..
as the customer reaches the door
the till supervisor trills
oh please remember to return our trolley
after you have returned your…to your car..
and with a clenched sotto shout of yes under his breath
a pensioner in ear-shot punches his fist in the air
schadenfreude at social distance..

hands touching hands

reaching out touching me touching you..

stay at home
save the nhs
save lives..

look at the night
and it dont seem so lonely
we fill it up with only two..

that toilet roll thing
it started with a viral
two australian women sumo wrestling
it sent out the message
toilet rolls are worth fighting for 
supplanting coke as the real thing
it went over most of our heads..

stay at home
save the nhs
save lives..

warm touching warm
reaching out touching me touching you..

furlough
what a poetry-word that is
perfect for an elegiac poem set in the countryside
like this..

through the bracken and furlough i traipsed

though my wellington boots have seen better days

my love left me for the village vicar

i hear the leather on willow

i confess it means nothing to me now..

 sweet caroline
good times never seemed so good..