Numbers hidden in plain sight
The obvious no longer seen
Out of sight - out of collective mind
The panic needs to be forgotten
The herd has moved on
Back to normal
On to the new normal
The pandemic is now endemic
So we are told
No longer to be feared
No worse than the flu now
Panic no longer community based
Rather now back to a more personal -
individual level
intimate pain and suffering
people are still dying
Numbers are still increasing
But facts are no longer shouted out
No longer on the daily news
Tabloid silence
Death is now whispered - reflected in-quiet data sets -
Hidden facts - in plain sight
If you look - you can find
websites online not broadsheet posters
The virus has evolved and grown tech savvy
And gone - now underground
It has developed a positive PR machine now
The panic has subsided
The new normal has arrived - we are assured
We have learned to live with death
a level of death now unreported in harsh glare
Sitting in the shadows
Waiting and watching
Numbers no longer important
Except to individuals
Individuals who see them
Increasingly on a personal level
Not large community groups
More intimate loss still, but not reported as before
The herd mentality has now hidden the facts
Influencers have won the “normality” debate
We have rushed into a new normal
But we are not sure where it has lead
the breadth of death and loss diminished in the daylight
Cliques now enacted to calm the masses
“No news must-be good news”
“Out of sight - out of mind”
We are “Opening up to the world”
We are now massing in groups again
Returning to crowded spaces
Sharing the collective breath and space
“Lockdown” and “isolation” words no longer used
now removed from the daily lexicon of group speak at least
Unpopular linguistics
Death and its reporting now relegated to a byline
A ghost lurking in the machine
Is the pandemic gone?
Have we won the war?
Or has it merely gone underground
Waging a guerrilla campaign
Developing new forms
Waiting,
Breeding, adapting,
Mutating in dark corners
The more obvious battle
Now one of misinformation
NO - not misinformation-
rather missing information
The optimism of redirection
An enemy now hides in plain sight
And appears harmless
A benign killer waiting in the shadow world
Waiting to return
Death is patient after all
And comes in many forms
Patient and yet relentless
The opportunist extraordinaire
Covid is no longer an obvious enemy
now hidden as the ghost in the machine
Silent and camouflaged
It is amongst us
And still with us
But we no longer want to see
We no longer want to talk about it
It walks alongside us still
With us
A silent killer we no longer fear
But should
That is its new form
A more deadly iteration
It is now the time of the endemic pandemic
A time of fear yet to be realised
Dr Geoff Wilmshurst spent 40 years as a professional teacher in disability education. He now spends his time travelling , writing and painting, and enjoying life with his wife Lorraine. He lives in the Blue Mountains in NSW, and finds inspiration for his work in its environment and that of similar places such as Tasmania and New Zealand. He hopes through art and poetry to connect with others, to make a positive difference in their lives, and to share the experience of what it means to be human and part of the natural world.