- Life During Pandemic[1]
Photo: The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick.
Month three in lockdown
and it’s time for another
Justin Trudeau Moment,
as he steps out like Evil Spock[2]
in a dark blue overcoat, doing his best
President in the Rose Garden act.
Fitting that the symbol
of the Mirror Universe is a sword,
“Divide and conquer” its method.
Not rocket science at all. Meanwhile,
people you’ve known for years
become distant or aggressive
or simply burrow in as deep
as they can go, heads well below
the parapet. “It’s lonely at the tip
of the spear,” said my brother.
Streets heavy as decades-old
silence, a soundless string about
to snap. The conformity
most terrifying of all. Thinning
membrane of community
at the tip of a needle, delicate
threads pulled apart by coarse,
greedy hands with machine minds.
Eliot’s Waste Land an eerie dream
of the future already here—
a civilization gone vacant
of soul. Contact, people.
We live or die by it.
©2020 Sean Arthur Joyce
[1] A take-off on the Talking Heads song “Life During Wartime,” released 1979, which includes the lyrics: “My chest is aching, burns like a furnace / The burning keeps me alive / Try to stay healthy, physical fitness / Don’t want to catch no disease / Try to be careful, don’t take no chances / You better watch what you say…”
[2] “Evil Spock” is a reference to Star Trek, the original series, specifically the episode “Mirror, Mirror,” in which Spock, Captain Kirk, and the rest of the Enterprise crew meet their doppelgangers in an alternate or parallel universe. Instead of the benign exploration mission of the original Enterprise, however, the alternate Federation is an intergalactic army of brutal conquest.
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About seanarthurjoyce
I am a poet, journalist and author with a strong commitment to the environment and social justice. If anything, I have too many interests and too little time in a day to pursue them all. Film, poetry, literature, music, mythology, and history probably top the list.
My musical interests lie firmly in rock and blues with a smattering of folk and world music. I consider myself lucky to have lived during the great flowering of modern rock music during its Golden Age in the late 1960s/early '70s.
In poetry my major inspirations are Dylan Thomas, Rilke, Neruda and the early 20th century British/American poets: Auden, Eliot, Cummings. My preferred cinema includes the great French auteurs, Kirosawa, Orson Welles, and Film Noir.
My preferred social causes are too numerous to mention but include banning GMOs, eliminating poverty (ha-ha), and a sane approach to forest conservation and resource extraction. Wish me—wish us all—luck on that one!
Diary of a Plague Year Part 7
Photo: The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick.
Month three in lockdown
and it’s time for another
Justin Trudeau Moment,
as he steps out like Evil Spock[2]
in a dark blue overcoat, doing his best
President in the Rose Garden act.
Fitting that the symbol
of the Mirror Universe is a sword,
“Divide and conquer” its method.
Not rocket science at all. Meanwhile,
people you’ve known for years
become distant or aggressive
or simply burrow in as deep
as they can go, heads well below
the parapet. “It’s lonely at the tip
of the spear,” said my brother.
Streets heavy as decades-old
silence, a soundless string about
to snap. The conformity
most terrifying of all. Thinning
membrane of community
at the tip of a needle, delicate
threads pulled apart by coarse,
greedy hands with machine minds.
Eliot’s Waste Land an eerie dream
of the future already here—
a civilization gone vacant
of soul. Contact, people.
We live or die by it.
©2020 Sean Arthur Joyce
[1] A take-off on the Talking Heads song “Life During Wartime,” released 1979, which includes the lyrics: “My chest is aching, burns like a furnace / The burning keeps me alive / Try to stay healthy, physical fitness / Don’t want to catch no disease / Try to be careful, don’t take no chances / You better watch what you say…”
[2] “Evil Spock” is a reference to Star Trek, the original series, specifically the episode “Mirror, Mirror,” in which Spock, Captain Kirk, and the rest of the Enterprise crew meet their doppelgangers in an alternate or parallel universe. Instead of the benign exploration mission of the original Enterprise, however, the alternate Federation is an intergalactic army of brutal conquest.
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Like this:
Related
About seanarthurjoyce
I am a poet, journalist and author with a strong commitment to the environment and social justice. If anything, I have too many interests and too little time in a day to pursue them all. Film, poetry, literature, music, mythology, and history probably top the list. My musical interests lie firmly in rock and blues with a smattering of folk and world music. I consider myself lucky to have lived during the great flowering of modern rock music during its Golden Age in the late 1960s/early '70s. In poetry my major inspirations are Dylan Thomas, Rilke, Neruda and the early 20th century British/American poets: Auden, Eliot, Cummings. My preferred cinema includes the great French auteurs, Kirosawa, Orson Welles, and Film Noir. My preferred social causes are too numerous to mention but include banning GMOs, eliminating poverty (ha-ha), and a sane approach to forest conservation and resource extraction. Wish me—wish us all—luck on that one!