Quarantine 2020

My tiny little earth is locked down

For the first time since its birth

My tiny little volcano is extinguished, in suffocation

Its lingering smoke signals dark forces on all sides, in despair

My shivering caterpillar wrapped tightly around itself

To practice social isolation, pausing its metamorphosis

And my essential rose proudly still

Blossoming with bitter fragrance

Behind its clear-plastic shield

I lock myself in my tiny little castle 

On my tiny little earth, idling at loss

On a single spot, hearing a catastrophe approaching

Looking for stars in the whirling black hole of the Milky Way

Hiding behind the stormy sky

Heavy rain is on its way moving fast

With shocking thunder rumbling on

The sun shies away, with long deep sighing

The moon, on a straight line, in helpless crying

Not knowing what to do

The stars shake their heads

Blaming the howling wind in the darkening sky

Shooting out spears of light in all directions

Far and wide

All intellects, chasing after rainbows

Across valleys upon valleys, hills upon hills

Arrows of hope speed out in a never seen speed

Aiming to find a cosmic anchor for humankind

Out of the tiny little window 

Of my tiny little castle on my tiny little sinking earth

I see these firecrackers and hear these cheer leaders

Hailing the frontline heroes for moving fast             

To halt the pandemic and force these evils of the invisible

Into lockdown and to stay in a cage buried in deep frozen ground

S.P. Ma

May 2020