Lockdown Letdown or Variations on Mark 5:1-20

Lockdown Letdown or Variations on Mark 5. 1-20

The pandemic has gone on for a long time now. People are tired. Bone tired. Resilience has run down. Some have lost work or are living in the fear of doing so. Although we know that many of the issues are complex and cannot be solved rapidly or easily, we still lose patience. In addition to our own struggles, we go online only to see the struggles of others. Their frustrations and angst are expressed or even ranted, looking for a home. Some of their angst gets transferred on to the accumulation of our own. While walking I caught this transfer happening to me. Then this happened.

Why do you want to heal me?

Who am I?

Legion

There are many of us

Faces like mine

Mirrored here

And there

And everywhere.

We are isolated and locked down

Nowhere to go

Let us out!

We can only walk or run

Around the same blocks

So many times.

We want to go to

The footy

The club

The gym

The church.

We want to hoon around

In our cars

Like bloody bogans

Terrorising old ladies

And little children

And the frazzled nerves

Of sequestered parents

Invigilating “online learning”.

We want to be out in the streets

Bawling and shouting

“My rights! My rights!”

We don’t care if we get the virus

As we’re dying in here anyhow.

Don’t try to make us feel bad

By talking of Afghanis who

Dream of being able to exercise rights

Or of earthquake affected Haitians

Who don’t have homes to have a lockdown.

We can’t fix them!

We want to be keyboard warriors

Or serve salvos of the seething stew

Boiling in our bile.

Give us our vaccination yesterday!

We are programmed consumers

And we want our product already!

Give us those police and politicians.

Let us hurl our hate at them.

How dare they do not show up to the press

Every. Single. Day.

Why should they rest?

We don’t!

Or aren’t!

Or can’t!

Let us release all our hate

On them!

Let them be

Our scapegoats

Our herd of swine

Cast into the drowning foment.

Take our torment!

Take it!

Take….

It’s … It’s… Gone?

It’s gone!

I’m free

I don’t have to lockdown

My heart

My reason

My soul

I’m free.

Simon C.J Falk      23 August 2021.

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He Spoke Into the Vacancy

He Spoke Into the Vacancy

He spoke

Into the vacancy

Slow, low

Spoken words

Not at all

Like the chit-chat

We began with

Now words are

Paced

Not raced but

Placed

Like offerings to

The air

And ear

That listens

Listens

First the back-story

Listens

Ah, now

Now

Here

The pain

The poverty

Of the soul

Laid bare

Kind

Of him to

Share

And share we do

The silence

The space

The questions

Again?

Yes!

Simon C.J. Falk 26 June 2021

As Ponds Reflect

As Ponds Reflect

As ponds reflect

The trees and sky

So do we

Reflect

People and places

Around and

Held

Within ourselves.

Simon C.J. Falk 24 May 2021

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The Emperor Had No Clothes Then No Mask

The Emperor Had No Clothes Then No Mask

The emperor had no clothes, then

No mask.

Bare necessities

Or not

So it seems.

Strutting stridently

On his

Self-styled stage.

Emperor or jester?

Which side

Of the coin?

Simon C.J. Falk 11 October 2020

Into Denial

Into Denial

 

Denial

No, it’s not

It didn’t

Happen

You were here

Now

Denial 

you are not 

not denial

You were robust

Always strong

Our light

Joking

Denial

With you we were

Safe and then

Fading

Denial

You seemed

Distant

Denial

I’m not here now

And you’re not there

Not

There

Not…..

A memory left of you

But we remember

Always

Always, we remember.

 

Simon C.J. Falk     28 July 2020

 

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Lost Soles?

Vincent Van Gogh did a number of studies on work shoes. He saw the meaning and story behind them.  Even the philosophers, such as Martin Heidegger, would write about it.

This frivolous verse seems light and vague at first. Beyond the humour is more. 

Lost Soles?

 

Dropped

Discarded or

Lost.

Lost soles

Looking and

Longing

Lingering.

Oh the hide

Of separation!

Past postured parable

Perhaps?

Of the lost soul

Who lost them.

Booty of the bereft

Isolated

In lack

For a place

To pace

Where soles

And souls

May roam free.

 

Simon C.J Falk  27 April 2020

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Remembered Scent

 

Remembered Scent

 Car ignition

The motor and

a smell

long, long

forgotten

returned.

A long forgotten

scent

of him,

one loved deeply.

The same smell.

And we

remember.

The nose knows

and remembers.

 

 

Simon C.J. Falk 6 January 2020

To Forget

To Forget

 

We at table

talk –

to forget.

Muse over a morning

of banter and doings

of what we do –

To forget.

Pick up pages

of someone else’s

story, in a book,

escaping to….

Forget

The window hazy

The smoke entering

Open door

We remember.

Lest we forget –

The furrowed and frazzled brow

Of Firies*:

their boots

seared to the soles.

Sear not their souls

too much

we plead

as images roll in,

role in too,

as politicians posture.

The worn weariness

worn like a day’s drearies,

As its been months’ now

that our bush has burned.

But

We remember

The Firies

and those who

offer water

shelter

food and

their love

tapped away on keys

that carry updates.

We remember

sacrifices made

by volunteers

leaving homes,

some leaving

country,

at the call

of the crisis.

Children paddle

families to freedom

Sons bear medals

Meant for their Fathers

Under the smoky

Southern sun.

 

 

*Firies is a term of endearment for Firefighters.

Simon C.J. Falk 6 January 2020

I Dreamed An Angel of Light

I Dreamed An Angel of Light

For Christchurch, NZ and too many others

I dreamed

An Angel of Light

Came down in the

Silence

Of the still dawn.

It gathered up

And held

The fallen

Close

To its bosom

And then rose

On great wings

To soar like eagles

Bringing them to

Eternal light and peace.

 

Simon C.J. Falk 18 March 2019

 

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We Three Kings A-Cantering Are

We Three Kings A-Cantering Are

Recently, I heard a rendition of the Christmas Carol ‘We Three Kings’.  The pianist played in such a way that captured the pace of camels feet bearing their cargo. Initially startling, it was surprisingly refreshing and kept returning over the day.

Tink, tink,

Tink, tink,

Clip, clop,

Clip, clop,

We three kings a-cantering are,

Our camels are off,

So watch us, ah,

Hill and valley,

No dilly-dally

Cantering to a star

Ohhhh…

 

 That piano

In its metronomic affect

Turns us inwardly

Inside out

And up and

D

O

W

N

To the pace of camels

A-cantering, a-cantering.

Ah, the energy and verve

Striking every nerve

Ending to its beginnings

It has us all singing.

Never ever before

Has this tune taken the floor

In a such a way

Oh, to stay and sway

On the dromedary delight

We may take to flight

At the sound of the piano.

But we go

Yet find a memory still aglow

Of the flight of the camels

By day and night.

 

 

Simon C.J. Falk 7 January 2019