One of my lockdown inspired poems. I live on a major road and it was very eerie to see it empty during the pandemic. I wanted to reflect that.

A small note on the use of rhyme in this poem: I don’t often write rhyming poetry but in this case I wanted to create a kind of echo to reflect the oddly echoey road.

 

Eight pm.  It’s still light

The road is quiet.

A good time to go.

I pull on my coat

And start to walk

Streetlamps awakening

Footsteps creating

an echo.

I listen

to my breath.

Feel its depth

Trying to find

abstraction,

distraction,

in movement,

in this moment.

It’s too quiet.

It’s too quiet.

A road with

no traffic;

A useless thing.

Derelict.

Breathing.

Repeating.

Filling the emptiness

with something.

Walking.

My feet echo

another time

Before things became

silent. 

Stopped.

The tarmac gleams

A single

headlight beam.