Prasad Iyer
Singapore

Poet’s statement

This fictional poem expresses the feelings of a migrant separated from his family during the COVID pandemic.

Hope quarantined

Quarantine forceth divorced souls
Distanced families and broken wholes
Shards of thoughts, impaling my core 
Locked down borders’ hearts a sore 
Shallow slumber, uneasy sense 
Worries, anxieties common hence. 

Weeks and months in the twilight zone
Together in felicity so long agone 
Digging deeper for hope every morn 
Gloaming bringeth, glad tidings unborn.  

Breathless the state, lungs not to blame 
Endless the pandemic, the brain declaim 
Vaccine hope beacon bright 
Only solution for human plight?  

Hope with new energy we all should pray 
Huge costs earthlings we continue to pay 
New hope bestrew world so vital 
Quarantined life ain’t viable here viral.