It was almost a living thing, large and smothering
that pinned us down and
which seems to have shed hairs everywhere,
I’m still finding them, clearing them away.
Days melted into each other
alone in this vessel of a house
plunging deep depths of fears and anxieties
climbing swallowing waves to see clear skies.
Gradually ending more and more days with a muttered
“That was a good one, wasn’t it?”.
Absorbing ourselves in the minutia of gardening
seedlings as companions, hope for some future
and canny planning for food supplies.
A returning shopper asked what is it like out there
as they washed clothes, hair and body
and we wiped clean all they had brought back.
No eggs this time.
Copyright © 2021 Kim Whysall-Hammond
Remembering the first UK Lockdown, in March 2020, an unsettling frightening time.
We are not out of the woods yet. This past week we have been isolating with a sick adult son who was in contact with a confirmed Covid case. We are waiting for test results, but the labs are slow due to 1.6 million poeple isolating this week and getting tested!
At least in full lockdown we were allowed to leave the house for exercise — I’m feeling very confined.
Fret not too much — so far, the effects are light.
linked to – earthweal open link weekend #75 | earthweal
The Cheesesellers Wife 
A very poignant poem for me Kim .. we are in lockdown at the moment… both here in Victoria and New South Wales …
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Keep safe Ivor!
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I hope your son is ok Kim! I remember those early days too, the sense of fear of the unknown.
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Oh, it’s all swapped this morning! Our son has tested negative and my Husband is positive. We are all living in seprate rooms now….
There is still the fear — what effect will the virus have on a 59 year old doubly vaccinated man? Who I miss terribly even when he is only one room away?
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Oh dear! I’m sure he’ll be ok if he’s had both vaccines. It just shows they don’t provide 100% immunity though.
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He’s happily playing computer games in our bedroom this morning…..called through the door for the CD of Crusader Stronghold. So fine so far!
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😅
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Oh, that is concerning about your son. Hope he recovers well and quickly. It is canny indeed to grow food. I foresee food shortages worldwide as the drought and fires continue.
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We have 10 tomato plants and 8 courgette plants this year……. ;)
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Time in the global arena is so warped and stretched and dappled in time of pandemic — one place is hunkered down, another so errantly free. Here in this corner of the US our earlier liberties are catching up terribly as the “pandemic within a pandemic” roars the delta variant through the devoutly unvaccinated. That spot may hurl and even worse mutation back at the world, and the waves will reach far shores at different times. Nothing consistent about this reckoning. And the supply chain inconsistencies are unending. Our cats have to eat whatever is available.
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It’s an ongoing horror. Those days in the first UK lockdown are almost nostalgic
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This has an apocalyptic feel to it, Kim. An excerpt from a Netflix series that we all played a part in and now that lingering feeling that it’s not over, there’s a second season. This has everything I like in a poem, humour and the details that compress a novel into seventeen lines…JIM
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Thank you Jim. I wrote it last year, along with a lot of other poems about that time. Can’t write anything now, too scared, angry and despairing of our government.
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That captures the feelings of the first lockdown well. It was a scary time. Over here in Victoria, Australia the government has a policy of wanting to achieve zero Covid cases in the community. To get to that we had a second long lockdown in 2020 and since then short lockdowns that are imposed with a few hours notice. We are currently in Lockdown No. 5. We don’t know when it will end. The Delta variant is proving harder to eliminate that the variant we had last year. They’re saying we might come out of lockdown on Friday but its not definite. They imposed it last Thursday.
I live alone too. These days I’m getting to be ok with the lockdown idea – I order my shopping online and get it delivered. I spend my days writing, painting, mucking about in the garden achieving very little and generally detaching from the world.
I do read the news online though. The UK situation and the sudden opening up doesn’t sound very good. I hope you are ok. – Take care – Suzanne
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It is certainly scary here in the UK. The government seems to want to get us all killed. We tend to stick to home, I’ve been doing online life drawing classes, hubby has set up a local cheese delivery service. But last week he tested positive. Our son had met a friend in the park ( at a distance) who then came down with Covid. But our son has had two negative tests! He has separated us into different parts of the house and is cooking all the meals. We are ok so far, just headaches and dizziness.
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Oh gosh. How awful. . How strange that your son gave it to your husband but is testing negative. Covid is really scary. Your art classes sound good. I tried one but couldn’t get the hang of it but then I didn’t like life drawing at art school either. I hope your family all recover quickly.
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Tanja at the Jolly Sketcher is a very good and enthusiastic teacher.
We are all feeling well at present, thanks.
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