2020- a poem by Javed Alam

​2020

When gloves and masks 
became our daily attires,
and aeroplanes were grounded 

like  birds with broken wings;
when love lost its sensuality,
and the frost of isolation 

gnawed on our souls; 
when no one prayed 
in mosques and churches, 

and no one attended 
birthdays, weddings, 
and funerals; 

when death rode swiftly, 
secretly, on the wings 
of an invisible monster,

and danced in the crevices 
of our, gasping, lungs; 
when time, unlived, turned stale

like unused fruits in our fridges,
and no one noticed
a blooming spring;

when we spent our days
and nights, idling, talking 
about angst and boredom,

about deaths and wills, 
about the spread 
of a contagion; 

when we all clung to the straw of life 
with hand washing,
and social distancing.

29/04/2020

(Javed Alam is a physician and a poet based in the UK. His poems have been published (both print and online) in various literary journals and magazines as well as in anthologies in the U.K, the USA, India, Ireland and Canada. In poetry, He has found a medium to explore the philosophy of life, Kashmir, and three-pound universe called the brain. He writes in the language of common people, about their ordinary thoughts and about their ordinary insights. He is also a board member of a UK literary journal "The Beautiful Space-A Journal of Mind, Art and Poetry.")