Atomised

 

When I come in

I have to scrub you from my skin

And it feels so horrible

Every time

 

Scrubbing away any trace of the air

That may have passed

From my lover’s lips to mine

Where once we shared breath

So joyfully

Our bodies do not touch

Our eyes reach out

Across the metres

But even our gaze

Feels too intimate, feels like it breaks the rules

 

When I go out

Performing the dance

And fearing the breath

Of my neighbour

Holding my own as we pass

Because there is not space enough

But the space that there is

Is vast

The distance grows between us

How do we come together now?

 

Last year we occupied the streets

And all over the world

We stood together

Raged together

Now we all rage indoors, alone

My life reduced

To a slab of rare minerals

Fifteen by seven centimetres

A tiny window on the world

A tiny mirror of my mind

 

It’s an addiction, an obsesssion

I cannot get enough

I am hooked

Hooked up, hooked in

Scrolling for indignation, scrolling for hope

I pay heavily with my consent

I pay with the highjacking

Of our wheezing politics

Which has died without a ventilator

In a cardboard box on the doorstep of the Apple Store

 

And since my hands are gloved

And cannot reach out and touch yours

All I can do now

Is the dreaming

The dreaming up of the world to come

I want to make a new world

Where we all hold hands again

But tighter than before

So no-one slips and falls

And gets trampled underfoot

 

Where that tiny window

Does not become my jailer

Or my narc

But still lets in the oxygen,

Lets in the light; and makes us space to be

Where we can breathe

This new, fresh air together

And feel the warmth and sweetness

Of another human’s speech upon our face

Like a caress, not a contamination

 

When I come in

I have to scrub you from my skin

And it feels so horrible

Every time

 

Video at: https://myshorten.com/K2t4 or https://youtu.be/le0T6K4ykG4