Louise’s Creative Writing Piece

‘Look Down’ by Louise Devlin

Lock down.
Stay put.
But put on your lateral thinking!
And for heaven’s sake,
Don’t get PC mixed up
With PCR!

Listen to the government!
The scientists.
Toilet paper is gone again.
Assholes will remain assholes!
Regardless!

Fear begets fear.
Division begets social media status.
The sound of one hand
missing from the clapping –
begets ostracisation.

The clear sky
seems to be immune though.
Stay home.
IT SAVES LIVES.
Remember,

If you go out for a
SECOND
time today –
It’s breaking
THE LAW.

I turn down the transmission.
I sit back in my garden chic chair
my oblivious head
tilted towards the sun,
fully aware now

Of society’s impending doom.
I bathe in lightness,
centre-stage of my own act,
sigh deeply with
healthy blasphemous lungs,

And all I can feel –
is an overwhelming sense
of sheer relief.
I was already
an outsider.

Isolation the norm.
Didn’t you notice
people wore
invisible masks
before this?

Didn’t you see
how many kept their
distance to intimacy
to begin with?
Coughing and spluttering

Their way over boundaries?
Spreading unwashed opinions
down other people’s throats?
I did.
I already was socially distanced.

My life didn’t really change
through lockdown.
Instead, my life became a
mirror, held up for others to
witness, and reflected

Back at me.
STAY HOME –
No
more
social anxiety!

STAY HOME –
No
more
agoraphobia!
Time slowed

Down.
To its essence.
To retreat.
To rest.
To recuperate.

To not have to keep up with
The Joneses, or the trains,
or the Toms,
Dicks
and Harrys.

Now
I could keep up with
my soul.
An invisible thread of
healing, woven by the

Silent tapestry of my
self.
We’re in this together!
Yes.
Me, myself and I.

Normalised.
The hermit
although hidden,
does have a
shining light.

Lock down?
Was to look down.
Down,
down,
down, to my core.

To look deep within.
And learn
to trust
again.
In how to

Unlock
my
own
heart
again.