And Yet

It’s a promising Thursday or maybe it’s a Friday.

The monotonous years make it difficult

To recollect what day, it is!

But I look at my phone and yes,

“Today’s Friday!”, it says.

I wake up rather unhurriedly, and

Have breakfast that I made (or ordered, infact!)

I then stay put for a while, in front of my closet

Trying to decide between a blue and a black.

A thought rushes in to my mind and I realize

How privileged I’m that I still get to choose –

I go with the black, anyways.

It’s just a 10-minute walk, from my apartment

To my cubicle. But I take 25. I take 25 to

Amble my way, greeting everyone I meet,

Hugging them, shaking hands,

Exchanging pleasantries just like the days when

COVID wasn’t an everyday term!

My office dons a different look today –

There are no one with face masks around,

There are no temperature checks going on,

There are no god-dammed sanitizers in sight.

I feel relaxed, at ease, you know right?

Inside no one seems to be working.

My manager intercepts me in the corridor,

Informing me how it’s just a day to celebrate –

With fellow colleagues, and every thing in sight.

The azure sky is rather cloudless today, but

A solitary cloud still reduces the sun’s impact,

And the tree that had more flowers than leaves -

Well, it still has more flowers than leaves!

There’s this added tinge in the air and yes,

You can breathe it now, for COVID -

It’s finally absent here!

**[It’s just a piece on, “Hope - the feeling we have that, the feeling we have is not permanent.” 

I’m sorry, it doesn’t however account for the lack of vaccines, oxygen, hospital beds or pyre slots!]