Thursday, April 30, 2020

Return to the New Normal





Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay







Return to the New Normal



Let’s break this down, shall we?
According to Collins
“When you return to a place,
you go back there after you’ve been away.”
That I can understand.
I went shopping yesterday and
all the landmarks were still there.
The building across hadn’t budged
and the street still bore the same name.
But, according to Collings,
“If you are new to a situation or place, 
or if the situation or place is new to you, 
you have not previously seen it or had any experience of it.”
So, maybe this street was not my street after all.
Maybe it was somewhere I had never been before.
I have to admit that it looked normal to the naked eye,
since Collins claims that
“Something that is normal is usual and ordinary, and is what people expect.”
That seemed to apply.
While I walked to the shop, I saw nothing unusual
or extraordinary.
Birds still looked like birds
and the neighbour’s dog still had four legs and a tail.
So, now I am afraid to go out again.
if everything I know about the street where I spent my childhood is wrong,
if the dog, the birds and the landmarks had all conspired
to trick me,
then who knows what sort of danger lurks in the shadows
waiting for me to drop my guard.




GloPoWriMo Day 30 - something that returns




2 comments:

  1. I love this poem! As we forge a "new normal" in our lives, it is interesting to rethink what normal means, or meant.

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    1. Dear Nina,
      Thank you for visiting my blog! Yes, the "new normal" scares me. Apparently, I am not alone. Most of my students were happy to be able to go out and have a social life again, but a week later they all feel the need to start hiding in their room again. The outside world has become scary.

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