Locked in False Paradise

We didn’t ask to be part of history

Yet here we are

Locked in, locked down

Trapped in the traffic of speculation

My thoughts meandering

Down a rivulet of harmonies, melodies and chords

Roses and thorns and the taste

Of lemon cake on a balmy summer’s day

Fences isolating inhabitants

BBQ smoke drifting in the summer’s breeze

And the pattering of water droplets from the fountain

A yellow hazed dream. But I can’t sleep

My stream of thoughts keep flickering

To soaring temperatures and wheezing, raspy coughs

And many feel like time is wasted

But there are some seeing the once in a life-time opportunity

Losing themselves in the moment

On the way up, slowly but surely

I breathe in the midsummer air and it

Resonates within me, like a beacon of hope

Lazing in the timeless void of

Days and weeks to come

Has the clock ever ticked so slow?

Like a fading heart-beat

The traffic closing in

Here we are.