Prufrock On Lockdown

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Today drags its pale length
as does the serpent
slow, stately, watchful
a day like any other
the day that follows yesterday
always preceding tomorrow
like a tedious argument

Unplanned
both shy of work
and play bereft
hot-desking
and agile-working
not working for me
my day now
structured by eating
measured by meals
by  medication
by those forever coffee spoons

Nothing planned
so nothing to regret
meaningless moments
with nothing arranged
only possibilities are exciting
the five o’clock briefing
another dose of dead antiques
another bargain hunted down
one more home under the hammer
another escape to the country
to the chateau or the sun
but from my armchair
escape is no longer an option
glimpsed desires unfulfilled
and not a matter of money

The seaside too
still  eludes me
retaining its magnetism
but with the pull of the tide
unable to reach me
The Lakes a mirage in my memory
a Prelude taught to feel,
perhaps too much,
the self-sufficing power of solitude
but this solitude no longer blissful

It now descends
the yellow fog
obscuring the future
taking with it the meaning of my days
rubbing its back against the window panes
of this my settled cell
licking it’s tongue
into the corners
of my every uneventful evening.
my every desultory day

So please release me
let me go
I’m being driven potty
Let me
disturb the universe
please do beam me up Scotty

Not quite yet insane
please let me live again

 

NOTE:  Readers may recognise certain phrases repeated
 from the poetic works of Wordsworth and T.S.Eliot, plus an echo from ‘Star Trek’.

 

Stop the world I want to get off

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Stop the world I want to get off

 

Stop the world I want to get off;
Incarceration does not suit me;
My home a prison;
My life is given.
Inertia rules, no remedy.

Four walls do now a prison make
And cabin fever is setting in.
On my study walls
Depression falls
Since holding you became a sin.

It has to be this isolation.
How can I live missing so much?
So please I ask
God speed this task,
I’ll give forever for just a touch.

 

Thomas Gray: Pastiche #5

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Each day this week I will publish a short 4-line verse, each one commencing with a well-known line, sometimes adapted to suit the context, from a renowned published poem.  The general theme is that of Isolation.

Thomas Gray: Pastiche #5

( ‘Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray )

 

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day

Another week in isolation spent

So give a cheer to all, ‘cos we’re still here,

Despite the trials that we underwent.

 

 

Five ‘Isolation’ Pastiches: #1

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Each day this week I will publish a short 4-line verse, each one commencing with a well-known line, sometimes adapted to suit the context, from a renowned published poem.  The general theme is that of Isolation.

 

Wordsworth’s Lucy:  Pastiche #1

( ‘She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways’: by William Wordsworth )

 

I dwell along untrodden ways

Beside the River Thames.

I teach myself to live alone,

And write poetic gems.

 

 

Keep Away From Me

If I am going to quarantine
Myself, I’d like to know.
Tell me please, in confidence,
Where all of YOU will go.

‘Cos as I’m trying to be safe
I do not want to see
The likes of you and Josephine
Paying a call on me.

That would defeat my purpose
In shutting myself away;
Non-contact is the intention,
To keep the germs at bay.

You may say this is overkill,
But as I’m eighty-five,
I really wish a few more years
To keep myself alive.