Gervic's Poetic Explorations

Corona's Worst and Best

As I traversed back to Twenty-twenty-first,
I hoped for nothing but a time reverse.
It was the ravaging days of COVID-19.
Everything had changed from the way it'd been.

All were shut down — schools, workplaces, markets, and stores.
Forced to stay at home, stay behind closed doors.
The only way to get out was to secure a Quarantine Pass,
And wear a face shield and that suffocating face mask.

Life underwent a complete transformation.
No more night outs, partying, or street exhibitions.
The authorities would catch you and bring you to jail,
Handcuffed like criminals or a driver caught drinking ale.

Many have died of this coronavirus.
People lost their loved ones. It's a worldly crisis.
A pandemic of this era took a million lives.
Take a moment to grieve for the ones who didn't survive.

The population was cut into a whopping number.
Have you ever thought or perhaps wondered
That COVID-19 is a hoax played by the government
To gain and cut the populace to a certain percent(age)?

Did this pandemic bring something good to your life?
Is it all the worst? Did you feel like you're losing your strife?
If time-reverse is given perchance,
Would you take COVID-19 out in advance?

As for me, I would rather not.
Let COVID-19 be part of the plot.
It's what has been written in the world's Book of Fate.
To remind us of Him and to strengthen our faith

The pandemic also brought something great.
A family now bonds together while they eat
Their meals prepared by a once working mother
While the children laughed at the jokes of their once busy father.

The once spoiled brat often comes home late
From night-outs to partying, or some silly date.
She now confines herself to a four-cornered room.
You might have found her once with a mop and a broom.

The once busy streets and the traffic you despised,
Now it's clear as cloudless skies, so pleasing to your eyes.
You can drive freely and fast to the market
While wearing that lovely smile and not a single fret.

This was how pandemic changed the world.
It shaped us and changed us, as the day unfurled.
I am also grateful for this terrible strife,
'Cause it was when I found the love of my life.


Written for "April 7 Poem--Play the opposites"   in "Dew Drop Inn" 
Prompt: “Play the opposites”—a theatre term I sometimes don’t like! But here I mean: do something unexpected in your poem, once or more than once. Any time you spot a cliché of feeling or of words, try its opposite, and somehow make it work!

383 words | 44 lines | 2,150 characters
04/07/22


From Chaos Found, Rewrite

Twenty-twenty-one, a year I left behind,
A time of shadows, where light refused to shine.
COVID's grip it held, a tyrant's cruel decree,
Altering our paths, twisting what used to be.

Empty streets, where laughter once resounded,
Shops and schools in silence, joy impounded.
Quarantine's chains, a prison for our feet,
Face masks our shields, the virus we'd defeat.

Nightlife's pulse stilled, parties a distant song,
Authority's gaze, a watchful eye all along.
Like specters caught, souls deemed a health risk's prize,
Handcuffed, condemned, beneath accusing skies.

Lives snuffed out, a million souls erased,
Loved ones stolen, grief's bitter chalice raised.
A pandemic's wrath, a chapter etched in blood,
Whispers of loss, in every silent hood.

Population thinned, a chilling census toll,
Conspiracy's seed, in whispers it took hold.
Was this a cruel game, a puppeteer's design,
To carve the world anew, with numbers realigned?

But did this darkness bear a hidden spark?
Did solace bloom, amidst the world's deep dark?
Perhaps a pause, a breath in life's mad race,
Where families gathered, finding time and grace.

Mothers, once adrift in work's demanding tide,
Now baked warm bread, with children by their side.
Fathers, faces etched with stress and toil,
Told bedtime stories, with a tired, tender smile.

The rebel child, who spurned the nest at dawn,
Now shared a meal, her youthful bravado gone.
Four walls confined her, replaced the wild night's gleam,
And in her hand, a broom, a newfound domestic dream.

Streets, once choked with fumes, now whispered green,
Sun-drenched avenues, a tranquil, cleansing scene.
Open skies above, a vista clear and wide,
No horns to pierce, just quietude to guide.

Yes, the pandemic scarred, a brutal, twisted blade,
But in its wake, some seeds of change were laid.
For I, amidst the fear, the loss, the endless night,
Found the love of my life, a beacon burning bright.

So twenty-twenty-one, though etched in sorrow's frame,
Holds whispers of resilience, lessons learned from the flame.
We emerged, changed, hearts scarred yet strangely free,
From chaos forged, a newfound you and me.