THESE SPECKS OF DUST (a poem by Michael Emmanuel)

Here & there & everywhere between
& in the cloud of silence hovering &
Buzzing & humming & in stares bereft
& in these specks of dust / these echoes
of isolation / the
child booking pages from a text into
memory & the spinster news-casting
updates from the health minister & the
third year biology undergrad distilling
seconds into online courses / on digital
marketing / e-commerce & in the solemn
dinner / cutleries clinging a canticle & the
beeping interruption of a notification
/ a colleague at school / slipping
into marriage & the glowing pre-wedding shots
/ the barrage of half-hearted congratulations
From fingers soused in uncertainty / of things
to come / not marriage / but lockdown
here & there & everywhere
hope tucked in the distanced engagements / the
anniversaries / the successful fundraisings
/ the crowd of courses / the dullness of indoors
/ the cracking of dawn / the dimming of dusk
& this is you shaping your memories into a lockdown.