These are strange times we live in-- we’ve stopped believing in things that happen. The pandemic has been going on for more than a year, after all. Still, I think it was almost a shock to realise how quickly we got used to things. And when I say “we”, I mean “I”, of course, but it’s easier to talk about these things if you pretend you’re not the only one. Though I don’t doubt that there are others out there who feel the same. As the number of cases (and deaths) ascended--rather steeply at one point--it became almost surreal to think about the immensity, the scope of tragedy happening every day, and the way we’re barely able to engage emotionally with the facts. I don’t mean this as a castigation; perhaps desensitisation and detachment are necessary tools, at times, by which we make sense of the world without losing our minds. Plus, against this backdrop of disease and isolation, the usual injustices—police brutality, homelessness, fatally shoddy infrastructure, the stark shortage of effective, compassionate leadership—seem more pronounced than ever. But I wonder if some things have always been this bad, even before the virus. And it’s only that our heightened sensitivity to the news these days, and the pervading sense of general despair, have made us more receptive to the darker side of reality. Receptive, yes, but somehow, at the same time, in disbelief. If there are passengers on the train, that’s only a throng of ghosts. If there’s a light in the hospital window, it’s just the dark’s blinking eye. If there are any who have died, they must still be teetering on the edge between life and afterlife. Hence, this poem. But as with anything, its bleak, cynical outlook is only one side of the story. There have been instances of goodwill. Grief, when necessary. Healthy dissent, and efforts to reclaim justice. Enough that the world hasn’t earned the world’s end, as Szymborska puts it. There may also be some small comfort in the fact that if things have always been this terrible…well, at least some of us have still made it this far. We can choose how we face this. If nothing else, we bear witness to what goes on in this world. And that’s not nothing. How else could we have stood here
and watched this world do what it’s always done? |