THESE DAYS and the Quarantine

It is very common to hear people say, “One day at a time.” 

Ever wondered what it’d be like if all of your days were alike?

These were My Days...

(I'm grateful to Exceller Books for publishing my piece in their anthology "New Normal: Poems from Pandemic") 

"THESE DAYS"

These days, they’re hard

I feel like a silkworm inside its cocoon,

paused in a life of fast forward,

Just sitting and sulking like a coward.

These days, they’re dull

I feel like a tortoise in its shell,

rewinding the ‘gone’ happy days in head,

Coping slowly and steadily to make peace with my bed.

These days, they’re a damper

I feel like a little bird in the cage,

thinking when did I become so mean,

My ‘once’ free world now reduced to a TV screen.

These days, they’re fresh

Waking up to the rustling of leaves,

Inhaling the whiff of cool morning breeze.

Imitating the cooing of birds in their nest,

it feels a respite to witness nature at its best.

These days, they’re a ransom

A high price globally paid,

to the nature suffocated without a break,

avenging its destruction like a ravening earthquake.

These days, they’re strange

A greedy becoming slightly mature,

When hopeful eyes peep through the ration left in the store.

Today I saw humans, dodging even the shadows of human kind,

Today I was sadly convinced, it's all a God’s design.

These days, they’re unknown

Touch is a danger, sneeze is a scare,

seems breathing outdoors is the worst nightmare.

Corpses pile up in the burial ground as rapid as the million trees cut down,

they struggle for space and mourn each other,

Oh! pitiful souls, sight not a single grieving heart around.

These days, they’re political

The ancient land cries in ruins, though its marvels stand tall,

The proud land of wealth, has a great fall.

The shady land of wit, connives underneath a radar,

The holy land of God, unites in the airtight jar.

Streets salute the masked men who bet their lives in trouble,

To guard the huge kingdom, bursting in the bubble.

These days, they’re a test

The world seeks an armour, to defend this crucial hour,

To learn our real existence, is why we came this far.

It’s a grim reminder, to the ones who’ll survive,

Coexistence will allow this green planet to thrive.

These days, they’re hard

escaping the cocoon is barred,

these days, they are tough

Yet the tough get going through the rough!

~By Agrita Arora

(inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic)