Annihilation

Clock ticked 8:00.

And he was there, behind the wheels.

Now driving to company’s estate.

Great! I’m right on time.

Surprisingly on a Monday morning.

Mondays?! Well no more a thing to whine.

Usual morning, usual bustlers.

He sees

the usual glimpses of the tattered posters.

 .

Do these things still have to hang around?

He still remembers

exactly what they read

 .

WARNING: GATHERINGS ARE PROHIBITED IN PUBLIC AREAS.

PRACTICE SOCIAL DISTANCING STAY AT HOME, FIGHT AGAINST THE PANDEMIC COVID19

. 

Calendar shows 2025, but,

He still remembers

exactly what they read.

. 

Lives were distorted

Displaced, locked down.

The earth took a vacation

Isolating all, white, black and brown.

Running for their lives

Till the closing

Of the border walls.

“Hurry Gather supplies”

Streets flash flooded to

Get hold of every shops, every stalls.

Like a flash in a flash

All disappeared. Silence!

Curfews everywhere

Gun shots in the air.

. 

Strange. I still remember all of it.

It all started with an announcement “I request my countrymen to stay at their home else we get set back 21 years in time”.

The world was never to be the same since that Broadcast went live.

Havoc raided the streets as people ran for supplies to store as much as they could to fight the oh so long days to come.

Many sighed of relief when they looked at the sharp blue skies, a resultant of the earth going silent while on the contrary many lives  were immersed in grief of separation from their families “We can’t go back now they closed the borders” many cried of hunger and starvation.

 .

Oh that time. I had seen the worst of the worst.

I remember, China had proved its own proverb right- “A clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.”, had fought its way out. That wasn’t the end.

But the beginning,

As the pandemic tightened its clutches.

Saw The City that Never Sleeps, silenced under the deadly chills of the virus. Seemed that this time The Sun will set on The British Empire.

And although the streets of Italy rattled with Reste forte Italia- Stay Strong Italy; and those of Spain with claps for the paramedics; breakdowns overpowered lockdowns.

Breakdowns of lives, as well as the medics as the stats of the dead climbed 100s, then 1000s and above.

Oh how I had cried, seeing the workers stranded on the roads of my country with borders shut on their faces.

Fearing that before Corona reaches, hunger would’ve already gotten the best of them.

Still wonder if it’s the way of the world.

That “only the fittest will survive”.

Whatever it maybe,

Hope overpowers all of it.