Page 76 - Everyone a Writer Anthology 2021

The Girl by the Window

A girl by the window, imprisoned inside,
Nothing to do, told to hide,
Her palm to the window, staring out through the glass,
When would this end, how could it pass?

The girl sighed, looking out at the street,
Normally so noisy, now incomplete,
The shops were deserted, the school windows dark,
This was far from a walk in the park.

The TV blared on, but she knew what it said,
The numbers were rising, more people were dead,
To her, it was living, this COVID-19,
There was nothing to stop it, no vaccine.

Yes, it brought the neighbours together,
But what good what that when you’re caught on a tether?
Leave the house for one hour every day,
But don’t leave the region, other people stay away.

The girl considered, there was some good,
Emissions were falling, so she understood,
Levels of carbon dioxide went down,
The skies were clearer over her town.

People adapted, they learned to survive,
Maybe she could too; live, and thrive,
Use Zoom, FaceTime, Skype, all those things,
Find her own way, use her own wings.

Yes, she decided, that’s what she would do,
She’d live the life she could, until it withdrew,
It didn’t help anyone to sit, all morose,
It couldn’t last long; the end must be close.

The girl smiled, looked back at those days,
They were the ones that made her think,
“Sometimes the things we hate the most,
Will keep us from the brink.”

Her world today was better,
The skies were blue and clean,
The people learned to smile again,
Reflected on what had been.

While the virus spread and flew,
The lessons learned were plenty,
The most important one however,
Was that hindsight’s 2020.

Lucy Hallam, Y9
Meadowhead

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