Let’s Party

A poem I wrote during the Covid pandemic lockdown:

On 22nd October 2020, the first day of the 6-week ‘Lockdown2’ in Ireland

He said

Will we throw a party?

I said

Are you finally losing it?

How can we throw a virtual party?

How can we dance when our feet are flat and unmoving?

How can we make banners and hang them from the rafters when we don’t feel like cutting and gluing and reaching up high?

How can we play rock and roll music and sing cheerful songs when inside we’re just about humming and we’re seeking out lullabies?

How can we invite others around to be part of a bubble when our own bubble is quickly deflating and descending?

He said

It’s time for a quieter party, a new kind of silent disco

A party that gives thanks for waking up above ground, one that celebrates that family and friends are still within speaking if not touching distance

A party that knows that though we’re not rocking and jiving, we can still walk and march to the beat of our own drums

A party that celebrates that in Ireland we’re not threatened by man’s inhumanity to man, by ruthless dictators or by warring overlords 

But by a virus that will be beaten by good and decent people, that will be beaten by us.

Let’s party.

Kathryn Crowley, 2020