Sharing my poem ‘Green’ which has been published by Silver birch Press under the ‘Mask’ series. 

Green

Our city’s divided
In colors
Like our flag
Red, orange, green
We are in the green
That is what it says — the circular
From tomorrow we can roam
A reward for being good
For staying indoors
Except

Occasionally
When we stepped out
To pick bread
At the gates.
For that is where we asked them to keep it —
The delivery boys who get the bread
We do not know their color or who made it or how
We are strict when it comes to rules — our apartment block
We wear our masks and our gloves and no outsider
Can cross our gate

Seventy-one days as of tomorrow it shall be
Since we stood at our windows
Watching —
Trees changing color from green to orange to flaming red
Birds: pigeons, crows, kites, and some others
Whose names I do not know
A few rule-breakers
And dog walkers with their dogs
running free with no leashes — Golden retrievers, Huskies, and Boxers
But all that shall end

For tomorrow we shall be free
For we are in the green
That is what the circular says — the one from the Ministry
We talk excitedly
About how far we will go
About our shoes
If we remember how to tie our laces
Our masks lie ready
Tomorrow is the big day
A few more hours to go

The guard’s feverish
The one who sits at the entrance to the garden
Nay, it’s not the excitement that has made him so
If only it were
Our gate dons a mask. It reads — “Containment zone–Sealed”
The circular says we are green
It is an hour outdated.
That is all it takes for a storm
A quake, a fever
And to move to red from green

I wrote this poem on June 2nd. The lockdown was to be eased in phases from June 3rd. I was excited that I could finally get out and go on my walk again. But on the evening of June 2nd, we got to know that the security guard in our building had tested positive for Covid. Our building was sealed. It meant we couldn’t step out even on the 3rd. It also meant we  would be stuck indoors even after 71 days!

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