A diary of the lockdown

During the country's 56 days of the 'circuit breaker' lockdown I managed to keep a 'diary' of the event. There were opinions, rants, humour, pictures of my home-cooked meals, and short poetry. Below, I have chosen 5 short poetry from the period. If you want to read all the stuff, the whole nine yards, click HERE. It is a long read but should be interesting. 😁



A diary of the lockdown

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photo by dsnake1


Day 23


cherry blossoms -
looking at my photographs
of Japan


29/04/2020
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photo by dsnake1



Day 24

Two blackbirds perch on my air-con unit and debate the pandemic.


30/04/2020
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photo by chelle at morguefile


Day 43

nicked finger -

red fish gills
in a white sink


19/05/2020
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photo by dsnake1


Day 46

hi love we will get by

sometimes even manage
to squeeze in a pub
if not the sky and stars
                         above
will do.

Ain't it good to be alive.



undated, probably late 80's
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photo by dsnake1



Day 51

hospital waiting room -
another trip to the water cooler again.



27/05/2020
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Day 23 : No chance to go back there for a holiday.
Day 24 : An American sentence.
Day 43 : Really nicked my finger preparing food.
Day 46 : Recently found from my old journals. Pretty appropriate now.
Day 51 : I was at a hospital for a scan when i wrote this.

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Now that the lockdown is over, remember, places are opening because of the economy. Not because it is safe. Take care.

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© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2020

dark side of the moon, part #3

what an early morning walk through the neighbourhood can do to you...

photo by dsnake1



dark side of the moon, part #3


adjust your eyes to the night awhile. the long line of street lights, they are zombies coming out to play.

do not touch that empty plastic bag rolling, flailing across the zebra crossing. do you feel any wind?

no flowering trees around, but a scent of frangipani? and that lady just ahead, is she waiting for a taxi?



2018, or thereabouts
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"ashes
swirling
swirling
at your
bare feet"

-dsnake1, glimpse

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© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2020

when angels fall

do we understand one's inhumanity to another, because of race, religion or beliefs?

photo by Comfreak at pixabay



when angels fall



If the rain that fall
are the tears of heaven
then it falls on the grasses
in the ravine at Babi Yar
on the ashes and bones that are
the herded naked
men women children
to the abattoir
and it falls on the barbed wires
and light towers at Auschwitz
on the pleas and screams
from locked chambers
the choking and
the gassed
and it splatters
on the blood-stained walls
at Tuol Sleng
screams in the corridors
as fingernails are pulled out
then the abused bodies hung on walls
where now row upon rows of
portraits of the dead stare back
their dead eyes
dead
mournful
and the rain
it is falling
on the hobnail boots of the demons
that are trampling on
the corpses of the angels...


21/04/2018
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"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever."

-George Orwell

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© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2020

Day 20 Lockdown

Day 20 of 'circuit breaker' shutdown, Singapore.

no social distancing again!
photo by dsnake1



Day 20


This afternoon, around 2 p.m., I had to go out to pack some lunch. I know, today is a Sunday, but do everyone have to go out in the streets? There were so many private cars on the roads, a petrol station was parked full of vehicles. The bus I took for that short distance was quite packed. There were crowds at the supermarket at the mall. There were strollers talking on cell phones on the pavements.

Yesterday, I watched a video of a lockdown in Ireland on a literary website. How very contrasting the scenes over there and here. Not a single person in the empty streets, only a single running car in the entire video. And the words of the narrator :
"you see the empty football fields.., even the empty children's play parks, don't say to yourself, it looks like the end of the world, what you have seen is global action, what you have seen of those empty spaces is how much we do care for each other, how we care for the ground parks, for our brothers and sisters,....we care for people we never meet."

Yes, by staying home we do care for each other. So people, go out only when absolutely necessary. If by any indication, this lockdown here will be extended again. And I think all of us do not want that.


26/04/2020
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This is not a poem. Just a rant.
I am doing a day by day account of what I am doing (or not doing) during the lockdown. Dunno how long I will lose the interest. If you want to read from Day 1, please click HERE


© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2020

agnes

Sometimes the road is rocky, and you fall. You try to pick yourself up...

pencil sketch by dsnake1


agnes



you told me you feel
                  trapped
like a bird in a cage
but the door is open
yet you choose
not to fly out.
you are afraid
of the dark clouds
              forming
and the horizon is far
and your wings are tired.
even
the fires of hell
seem to hold less terror.
there was always the murmur
about going home
about flying free
and the bold steps
you try to take
always end at the edge.
at the edge.


18/08/2014
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To agnes, wherever you may be.

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There was always the murmur,you remember, about going home.

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from "Extreme Wisteria" by Lucie Brock-Broido

I was inspired by the lines from the above poem. This is a prompt from the Bibliomancy Oracle. It can work in agonising ways.

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© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2020

dark side of the moon, part #2

imagine what a messed-up chair top can inspired...

photo by dsnake1



dark side of the moon, part #2



we have to land, she says. we have to jettison some stuff. the fuel, some cargo.
but the people down there, the villages?
fuck the villages, she says

and she runs her ferrari right through the lights...


20/10/2018
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this piece partly inspired by news of supercar drivers behaving badly...

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Rolling Stones - Paint It Black

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© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2020

dark side of the moon

The killing of a teenage girl more than a decade back made the news headlines then. The mother of the girl was arrested for the crime. The line between love and hate can be very fine...




photo by paulabflat
image from morguefile.com




dark side of the moon



if the moon could turn its face
so that she might live
that fateful moment
again
she would have counted to ten,
even two would do, waited for that
fog of red mist to die off
like an echo

but now

with blood-stained hands
and chained
and dragged
to hell
knelt before King Yama
and what can she tell
the Infernal Judge

that she loved
the daughter
she killed?


20/03/2009
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This is an unpublished work that has been sitting in the PC for a long time. Wonder why.

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“Mad Hatter: “Why is a raven like a writing-desk?”
“Have you guessed the riddle yet?” the Hatter said, turning to Alice again.
“No, I give it up,” Alice replied: “What’s the answer?”
“I haven’t the slightest idea,” said the Hatter”

― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

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© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2020