Stranded

Brisbane tv 1976 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64kAK0CZjdk

Like a snake calling on the phone I find
I've got no time to be alone but all the time
There’s something coming at me, all the time.
Snake time yeah babe I think I'll lose my mind.
I'm riding on a midnight train all right
And everybody looks the same dejection
A subway light it's dirty reflection
I'm lost babe I’ve got no direction, all right
Because I am stranded on my own my own,
Stranded far from home, nothing I can do.
Spatial, you have got to leave me alone
Because we’re stranded on our own, the world
Babe come now look at me looking at you
You’re lost too, your mind is stuck in a whirl.

How

How it asks each one of us, how is your lockdown.

How patronising, this supernumerary microbe.

How indifferent to our many doctorates.

How do you do, it says and then says, good night.

How came this gamechanger amidst our midst.

How and Why Wonder Books don’t seem to know.

How long is a piece of string, how peace of mind.

How many windows can be opened on a screen.

How to apply for a Centrelink claim.

How the West was won and then infected.

How Kemo Sabe now keep two metres distance.

How to complete a sonnet with lines from London.

O how the wheel becomes it! sang Ophelia.

Howl, howl, howl went Lear in a plague year.

Cancel

Cancel all entry, dust the CD case

I am DJ HAIKU of my own workplace.

Cancel canapés, the poolside digress

I walk the plank of the Diamond Princess.

Cancel the night out, that would’ve been nice,

I thrive on a diet of rice, rice, and rice.

Cancel the Council on Doing Things Better.

I work at home, neither quitter nor debtor.

Postpone the crowd zone with its homegrown moan,

We retail with email, live on the phone.

Postpone the concert, ALL hypotheticals!

For us, the lifestyles of eremeticals.

Postpone the flight to our favourite Big Town.

We ask each other, how is your lockdown?