The world turns

On an axis of love

And hate

And poverty

Hunger

Hopes

Fulfilled and lost

The world turns

While those upon it

Watch and

Judge and

Strike down

And help up

And comfort

And aid

The world turns

And

Now

Burns

The flames flick

Fitfully

Licking our heels

Tasting the panic

The mistrust

The helplessness

Threatening to turn us

To ash

Raise our hands

Feel the beat

Of billions of hearts

Dance in the fires

Letting the billions of feet

Stamp out the flames of

Death

This poem is inspired by the PoetsPub new contest, as published in their Pub Chatter. You have to write a free verse poem inspired by the painting above, Classical Dance Art 7 by Maryam Mughal. This could have taken many forms, but the current situation prompted the above.

We feel isolated. The UK has gone into lock down and I'm working from home, had to close my salon and have my wife and children at home, along with my daughter's boyfriend. We feel at risk and afraid and frustrated. This isn't a time to, as one news report said, lick all the toilet rolls on a supermarket shelf, or to panic buy them, or to, as another report said, deliberately cough on the elderly. It's a time to realise we're one world. It's a huge world that's made tiny by platforms such as Wattpad and the many social media apps. Be sure to reach out. Be sure to talk, interact and, as I said, dance on the flames that are trying to consume the world.