Pandemic blood

It’s not red

It’s orange
and violet and gold
And silent and sweet

It’s unstoppable and grief and green and hard

It’s a mouthful of cotton-wool
and a glassful of fire
and an unwritten dirge of life

In the months with 30 days, it’s a social media challenge

Out near the supermarket
it’s an unmasked dog with an unwagging tail

Jumping from tree to tree
it’s the coucal that’s unphotographable because my camera is always my phone

It’s rain in the summer
floods in the winter

It’s traveling the world without
leaving my chair
leaving work undone

It’s dying passions and
living the minutiae as if they were passions

It’s eating lies for dessert
after skipping the main meal

It’s crying and laughing and crying and laughing
and feeling the same nothings

It’s swapping love for hate and hate for love
and not knowing and not caring

It’s throwing stones at stones and staying in a bubble

It’s pretending to pretend and being real without admitting it

It’s not stopping and not starting and not floating

It’s being dead and being grateful for being alive and killing for sport

It’s all of this and none of this
and sinking into an abyss and rising above the skies
and choking in the stratosphere

Okay that’s it.

The artwork that appears on top of the poem is available to purchase as an NFT

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