Lockdown Confession

Lockdown Confession

You ask how I am in these Covid days

…and my mind goes back to the cancelled trains,

those last few years –

the mad,

frenetic pace,

relentless ways,

switch off the lights,

and then the same.

Thameslink…

your only task

to play the game,

just get me home;

instead you announce,

“No trains again.”

So once more,

miles from my flat,

dead on my feet,

stuck with thousands,

poor devils,

clad in grey and black,

all trying to plot our way,

like some army manoeuvre,

switch stations,

cross track,

squeeze on,

slow train,

every stop,

moving as one,

wretched pack

of automatons,

herded up those steps,

and over the bridge,

shift and edge

and shuffle our way

finally back.

Key in the door,

coat off;

what next?

Quick snack,

an hour or two,

cram in the rest of life,

before bed,

and then…

begin it all over again.

And you ask how I am.

I tell you,

I’m bloody marvellous.

© Claire Pinney

www.clairepinney.com