Lockdown will end

and the world will come about with a drastic change.

Desktops will be with less of a clutter;

a deadly silence at the workplace,

a workhouse rather than a place to work'

No laughter, and the smiles

can't be seen anyways behind the mask.

The eye contact rare and only to signal a thing;

a thing that needs to be done on an urgent note.

The smell of the sanitizer in the air,

heavy with the memory of the ones

who left or were forced to leave

with no chance to say good bye

either to the office or to the world.

What do we need most to make our job a little better?

A veil, a mask or a shield?

What do we need most to make

life filled with a little more sense?

A mission, a task, or an employment?

No more questions. Everything can wait.

Just now, I need a coffee break.

Sushama Karnik (c)

April 18, 2020

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3Françoise Dhulesia, György Fülöp and 1 other

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Françoise Dhulesia

Oh, what a poignant evocation of the lockdown and how we were confronted with the absurdity of a world, cold, silent, sanitized, deadly...And, oh..., this impossibility to get any answer to our existential queries...

And what about this last line, so down-to-earth in such dramatic circumstances...! In a different world order, what matters is to live in the present and cultivate that live-saving sense of immediacy.

What a powerful poem, Sushama, and how beautifully it emphasizes the dehumanisation of our existences, lived like a glacial parenthesis... How to make sense of the chaos and confusion around us, if not by never giving up these small moments of pleasure that're essential to our lives...

I did not know you at that time, Sushama, and I wonder whether you could find in yourself the salutary strength to keep writing, and if it was liberating.

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Sushama Karnik

God forbid...!