Tag: lockdown

Lockdown Adventurers, by Heather Wastie


By Robert Garnham 
Lockdown adventurers

8 people over ninety
falling from playground equipment 
60 encounters
with venomous spiders

5,600 amateur builders 
coming into contact
with electric hand tools 
2,700 with hammer or saw

349 tussling
with lawnmowers 
2,243 with hot drinks, 
food, fats, cooking oils

Though many found comfort 
adopting pets,
7,386 bitten, or struck,
by dogs

Ninety-year-old woman 
bitten, or struck,
by crocodile
or alligator

Despite more time at home, 
number struck by lightning 
up
from 3 to 18

Adventurers
The tip of the iceberg

Found poem, written January 2021 using words from article: Covid: Thousands needed hospital treatment after lockdown DIY https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59854919

Former Worcestershire Poet Laureate Heather Wastie was born in Cradley Heath and now lives near Kidderminster. She has performed extensively across the UK and published eight poetry collections. On Twitter and Instagram she is @heatherwastie. Her Facebook group is Wastie’s Space, and her websitewww.WastiesSpace.co.uk is embarrassingly out of date.



 

					


		
	




			
				


		

			

		

		

			
Dressing up in Lockdown, by Shanta Acharya

							

					
 By Robert Garnham				

					


		

			
DRESSING UP IN LOCKDOWN


A pristine summer’s day, sparkling like champagne,

perfect for giving my garments an airing.

At home in a bubble of my own, lounging

in pyjama and dressing gown, numbering

my days’ illusions, comfort reigns over style.

My wardrobe reprimands me, cries in chorus

– saris complaining the loudest of not being

touched, embraced, admired – their silks, chiffons,

satins, crepes, georgettes, chanderis mothballed

in tissue, chide me for starving myself

in the midst of plenty. Unable to ignore their

pleas, I wear a sari with matching jewellery,

spray myself with Immortal and Eternity,

with a glass of bubbly watch Downton Abbey.


In the words of Mimi Khalvati, Shanta Acharya’s ‘poetry shows a rare combination of lyricism, intelligence, sagacity and a wicked sense of humour.’ The author of twelve books, her most recent collections are What Survives Is The Singing (Indigo Dreams, 2020) and Imagine: New and Selected Poems (HarperCollins, 2017). www.shanta- acharya.com