Faultlines from the 'Covid Interregnum'*
Many creative projects have been spawned by the lockdowns, even as artists, actors, writers and musicians have struggled to work. I found myself gravitating towards shorter - more haiku length - forms of expression to try and capture some of the terrifying, bizarre and beautiful moments of this extraordinary time. I will try to keep updating!
Spring 2020
Homo Economicus 1
In the store
Nature sorts us out
Lifelines divide
Choice makes ends meet.
Homo economicus 2 (after Flint)
Doctrine shock
In ghost towns
People stumble for water
Lost in leaden haze.
Ecological currency deflation
Cold trade wind exposure
Market pitchers
Lose their thrust
Nature bats last.
Sexy Net Flicks
We are one
Desiring race
Chasing difference
To the finish line.
Summer 2020
Alms trading (VE Day)
Dissonance rules
A sick nation
Drones press the
Blitz spirit over Syria.
Extinction Rebellion
Just another story
The papers report
On declining values.
Open skies policies
At sunset a bloody mauling
Our thin blue sheath
Rent to fuel folly.
Autumn 2020
Stuck in traffick
Off the Kent shore
A flotilla of little ships
Weighed down by the past.
The Bullingdon Club Fatwa
Defiled images of moolah
Unworthy for free school
Trade thought.
Personal planet
When Greta speaks
Of this abuse
Our inner Earth
Cries for mother.
New road building announced!
Thousands choke
To sound of the division bell
Lobbying for death.
Homo Habilis (clapping the NHS)
From the outside
Ideal homes cocoon
Strange folk missing links.
A low cost conspiracy
It’s gone viral!
This plot to consume
Everything is up for grabs.
Our leaders
Float in thermals
Of childhood rage
Truth balloons
In skies free from cloud.
The News
We hide in the spokes
Of the wheels we create
To watch the next crash.
Bank Holiday
Hiding no more
Liberty tans the virus
Picks up the rubbish.
Winston and Julia are dating again
In Big Brother masks
Playing lip service
To new sex crime reports.
Winston and Julia are dating again (part 2)
On the moor
Things get heavy
Thermal image drones
Can’t take the heat.
Basic income streams
Must be paid forward
In exchange for Earth gift
Need not return.
Transport history lessons
Carriages unload their burdens
By the school
No escape from the gas.
Yemen: a graphic guide
BAE men, USA men,
Sonny and Cher men,
Not so pretty petals.
Un-Earthed
Billionaire gods make war
Selling red shift time
Without shares.
Digital discrimination
Apps have gone viral
Tracking new profits
Is a taxing test.
* The phrase is not mine. I heard it first in a brilliant article by Simon Springer 'Caring geographies: The COVID-19 interregnum and a return to mutual aid' in Dialogues in Human Geography It is a great 5 min read which shows the ongoing relevance of anarchist ideals in any crisis.