Testimony to the Year that Is 2020

We wake to a new dawn

except,

It is the same as the one just gone.

Fatigue battles fear

The crown no more is glamorous

Clothed in green, dotted with spikes

it seeks to conquer.

The win is easy

there is no plan.

Nations war, lead blindly

There is no Roosevelt, no Gandhi, no Mandela, no Churchill

On the frontline and in the trenches

health workers and you and I.

The line of defence a mask.

It is not enough

This the virus knows

For true ammunition is the mind.

A mind that must confront

Loss of hope, loss of job, loss of love, loss of people

Loss of living as it once knew.

A mind that has no place else to go

locked in the sameness of each day

cornered into the same space

 seeing everywhere, the unseen enemy.

In the shake of a colleague’s hand. In the love of a lover

In the hugs of children. In the business of shopping.

On a doorknob, on table counters, on milk bottles, in delivery boxes

On bread, on money

 in a fellow-human.

Isolated. The mind must become its best friend, and its defence.

For the battle is in the mind

this is the power of the virus

Deadly in its hold on mind and body.

2020 the year humankind came to a standstill,

the year we questioned all. The year we longed to believe in a God

the year we understood

how deadly our appetites have been.

The year we were led by those we could not trust.

Leaders who led our countrymen to slaughter

Leaders with false promises, wrong actions

who thought nothing of putting millions on the line.

The year we needed more than ever ethics, compassion and a conscience.

The year of relational breakdown

Of abuse. Of neglect. Of sadness

Of splintered dreams, ruined lives, businesses closed

Job cuts, pay cuts.

The year we were haunted by migrants with babies and a handful of rice

crossing distances that were never meant for foot.

The year we saw people barred from their countries

places they had thought was home.

The year we saw strangers open their doors to strangers

Share their fare with others,

the year we saw humankind

that is you and I

be Kind.

Giving, knowing we had to

for without the guide of leadership

it became the time to lead ourselves.

Guided not by victory against the enemy

but by victory against inhumanity.

2020 the year of sacrifice.

Of compassion. Of kindness. Of inhumanity.

The year we each had to make a choice

to be human or not

to be hopeless or with hope.

The year we knew we had to dream

of a better tomorrow,

even with everything changed

and our tomorrows forever different.

2020 the year we fought the battle by ourselves.

Falling victim to the virus

falling victim to ourselves

and

Yet, fighting on

Saying,

It must be better tomorrow than today

Knowing

that the time has come

for us to be worthy of that tomorrow.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Note: image sourced from thebetterindia.com article https://www.thebetterindia.com/240124/kolkata-durga-puja-pandal-barisha-club-honour-migrant-worker-mother-goddess-ros174/