The air is dense
with sadness today.
Businesses are still open
for takeaways,
but there’s no music,
no laughter,
no sit-downs,
no children playing,
just a somber expression
on every face.
A kind of bleakness
on a perfect day.
Everyone is talking
about covid.
People are divided!
It’s like a time bomb
waiting to explode 
The antidote to fear is love 
©AllysoAlly2021
The tide has ebbed
and the crowd’s
gone home,
I feel an expanse
of thoughts that roam..
meet me there
in this hallowed land,
where footprints imprint
us in golden sand!
©AllysoAlly2021
This time last year we had just started lockdown. Who would have thought we would still be reeling from it a year later?..
Everyone was stockpiling toilet paper and non-perishable goods. I felt sorry for those who could not buy stockpile because they didn’t have the ready cash. Easter hung her head in silence and we waited..
There were no limitations to our food supply, farmers still brought their produce and deliveries increased, helping those who were aged and house-bound.
I’m remain impressed by the human spirit and how people help-out when there is trouble. I believe that there are more good people in the world, than bad.
We hadn’t started wearing masks yet!
The timidity of faith
was everywhere,
A diminished touch
brought great despair
But love has wings
of invisible breath,
It can’t be extinguished,
not even by death…
©AllysoAlly2021
We have a variant, they say, but the vaccines won’t be as effective, they say, so we need another one, they say. We live in Africa where people are poor, where livelihoods are threatened…Can we survive?
This is just the backdrop to the following piece…
There is so much to say
and the words are jumbled up in my head
the shutters are jammed
and only a thin beam of light emerges
to touch my heart,
is it enough to jump-start the day?
it’s all been too much
the news
the ups and downs
there’s no celebration for us mortals
no fanfare telling us it’s over
no breaking news
yet
The harmony of senses is grounded
tossed in the dirt
with ant colonies
in a frenzy of movement
searching for life-saving moisture
to quench our parched remains
We look through cracks
into the fabric of time
hoping it will soon be different
the pestilence will be blown away by a mighty wind
there’s no “Doctor Who” to save us
just a melting pot of worry
brewing
overflowing
into chapter after chapter of doubt
I turn the pages every day
waking up to another round of bad news
Always hopeful of a new dawn
I watch bees collecting pollen
and going on their way
still gathering in anticipation
of being rescued
from the dark forces
that threaten
undeterred by the pandemonium!
brave faces in the supermarket
are hidden behind the terror
we are unrecognizable now
shriveled masterpieces
we have almost forgotten how splendid we really are
our faith lies dormant
in pools of the unknown
we wait
but our patience is growing weary
stacked up in doorways
we look out
into the darkness
have we lost our connection to the universe
or can we still stand
and watch the stars long enough
to meld into their light?
Can we escape this madness
and fly to another world
or maybe shrink ourselves into tiny fragments
into close-ups of nature
touching our skin
life-saving devices
resuscitating our dreams
bringing back our confidence
so that we can believe in miracles again!
our hope gets magnified among the soft tentacles of light touching us once again,
warming our bodies with love and grace…
we are eternal beings!
©AllysoAlly2021
There’s a story
behind the story,
a memo unheard,
a brave recollection,
a song without words…
There’s a mood
that keeps changing
when the lights are still on,
a company of strangers
in this invisible throng..
There’s a time for silence
when words
aren’t enough,
a graceful departure,
a time to give up…
In the stillness
of evening
when the crowds
are all gone,
there’s the fragrant reminder
of an eloquent dawn….
©AllysoAlly2021
Dear Coronavirus
We only have halcyon memories of the summer before you came swimming to our shores, maybe more like flying in from the north. At first, some thought you were just a traveler’s disease and for a time we rested on our laurels.
But you woke us early one morning with your virulent temper and locked us up in our homes for weeks on end, hurriedly shutting-down our lives. You broke all news channels with your apocalyptic utterances, leaving devastation in your wake, as you made your way into our Cities, then from town to town and village to village. You finally spread yourself out along our deserted beaches, and we watched helplessly from a distance as bird-life returned, but humankind stayed away.
This year there were no squeals of happy children splashing in the surf, no families with overflowing picnic baskets and umbrellas traipsing across the hot sands…
Only fishermen were able to wade into warm waters and feel the heat of summer on their backs. Holiday makers journeyed home with no snapshots of beach parties or the magic of summer, still pale from indoor celebrations. New year festivities were just a sprinkle of distant laughter and restaurants felt a heave of emptiness as they closed their doors at 9pm.
Sadness is all around us now, you have imprinted us with fear and we will never forget how you tried to steal our joy!!
From a Seaside dweller.
P.S. Please go away and let us get back to being human again. Â
©AllysoAlly2021
We are somewhat of a hotspot for coronavirus, so our beaches will close from tomorrow until the 3rd January. Unfortunately it is a time of enjoyment for many who come here for their summer holidays, but the powers that be don’t want to risk large gatherings.
So today many of us hit the beach drinking in our last quaff of ocean magic…for now anyway…
Last time they closed this beach, it was reported by the rangers that the sea birds had a cosmic festival of their own…
When the skies peer
into reflective
sands,
and the ebbing tide
makes no demands,
like lovers
joined in perfect fusion,
merging into
liquid music…
Mirrored
they see
themselves
as incandescent
parallels,
walking through
translucent skies
I feel my breath
alchemize,
and I join in
their comic song,
to feel the sense
that I belong…
©AllysoAlly2020
We still have a ban on alcohol here, and the Wineries are feeling the pressure. Please buy South African wine, if it’s available in your part of the world.
Thank you…
This poem was written by a friend in our nearby township, I haven’t changed anything, I just left it raw the way it is meant to be… It blew me away!
I was quarantined
without even knowing
My freedom stolen away by so called COVID-19
I was in empty room
Lonely and quiet
that you could even hear the sound of flying passing by nuisance flies
I’ve kept checking on my windows
the sunrise
I’ve watched sunset
The day growing into a dark knight slowly
The hours surely matures the day
with lots happening in the wild
whilst human communities are experiencing lockdown
I’ve lost my freedom
I’ve lost my time
I’ve lost my friends
most of it, losing my relatives
In times of this pandemic
I’ve gain a hatred towards all these so called viruses
That feels like made in doomed offices
Sometimes feels like
being led by doomed leaders
with lack of knowledge and fuming with greediness under their skins
We are led to the grave
not to be saved
but to lie six fit underground
Underneath the rotten soil
This soil that have stepped on by so many people with different mindset
Together physically,
separated by their individual interests
I was quarantined without being aware.
By Bulelani Happyboy Mbanya
