The Winds of Change - A Poem about the New Normal

 

#20_21

The winds of change begin to blow, slowly, softly at first, working

Up the sky and the clouds into a roiling mass of chaos, churning

The blue sky into a gyre that gathers speed dizzying the mind, yet

Unseen by those that pass below, unsuspecting, unaware of changing

Times and a new normal of face masks and social distancing. All this

  While a deadly host waits to stop the world in its tracks even as they

Celebrate, party, shop, dance and drink, throwing caution to the winds.

 

The blast that flattens a skyline, leaving untold suffering,

While nations stage economic wars and wars with bombs, even

The greatest dams cannot the ravaging floods arrest! The new world

Order arrives but few see it, fewer still, a spinning gyre that swallows all,

 Unleashing a terror on all humanity to tame it of its arrogance and pride.

The vain boast of science, but before a germ bow down with shame.

 

Schools close, students struggle, focus on flickering screens, while

Teachers tackle technology and forget the lesson. Even the best can

Merely create a virtual world out of a film! Not even history could see 

A world of screens and bleary eyes. As cameras blink and voices crack,

One wonders if one would into the void be sucked! As you call out into

The screen none respond, and you wonder if you're going mad.

 

The jobless wander, straggling lines of despairing humanity, trudging a

Thousand miles to be with kith and kin, only to be struck by illness and

Hunger. Even then, others who lead, recession, depression 

With inflation doing the rest. Alas! Those who lead live in ivory towers

Refusing to accept the reality, to unlearn pride and stubbornness

As people become mere statistics in a quagmire of data.

 

The world teeters on the edge of a precipice, a chasm that sucks

Away all humanity. Sons and daughters refuse to tend their parents

Leaving them to die, others hoard Oxygen cylinders not share them.

A world in fear abandons its loved ones lest it is stricken. Greed 

And selfishness watch as humanity struggles before an unseen host,

 An unseen host making the pain all the more intense and harsh.

A man holds his head in his hands, how often, how often

Will he have to start anew? At an age when they thought he should

Retire, he keeps resetting his life. He started with garments to suffer loss

Shifted to electronics, suffered loss, imported stuff and suffered loss,

A victim of lockdowns and market forces intent to destroy livelihoods.

Yet, now he needs to go to a counsellor to tell him what to start.

 

The chaos sucks all into a gyre, that spins faster and faster. 

Whole worlds whirl, whirlpools spin  faster as lives flash by

Even as those that pause to watch grow dizzy by what they see.

Now, this is the new world order, where AI is a new religion,

That has algorithms as its acolytes - each one of us  a mere

Yoked data point, an ingredient to be whipped, into a  soup.

 

The winds of change have arrived, at last, they bring with

Them confusion, chaos and perplexity, while children and

Teachers, businessmen, doctors and nurses stare with surprise

 Into virtual worlds, waiting to be sucked into hungry, gaping

Maws to be turned into a virtual soup to feed hungry, invisible

Machines that crunch bones and flesh into data points.

 

The new world order teeters on unstable feet, threatening

To topple all into a dusty heap. Eliot would have recognised

The wasteland that we've created. Not even the gods of Rome

Can help us find a way out of a mess we made as they're

Replace by one that feeds on data and spawns algorithms, turning

All into nothing but digital data to be stacked and stored!

 

There is something even worse coming, an entity that feeds

When we sleep, a succubus, on the  human spirit, even Einstein

 In his wildest dreams wouldn't have thought that science in all its

Glory could be stopped from turning into  a competitor that would

Turn a man into poverty and helplessness. You know-how 

Businesses have failed, and factories have shut down..

 

There is, something weird about planes falling, ports exploding

Waters roiling, oil spills spreading and forest fires spreading.

Even countries turn enemies eye-balling  each other hatred

Nurtured by desire and gain, of other's lands and resources.

Times have changed, people drift apart, humanity is forsaken.

Years squeeze into minutes, memories compressed into bytes.

 

And then the virus strikes, innocuous at first, but gaining speed

Like an avalanche that gathers boulders, trees and people in its

Wake. Young and old, women and men, newly married, strong and

Weak, politician and peasant, all felled in one swoop by death's scythe

That knows no distinction! As people gasp for air, siren sounds rent

The air, with their wailing - nation brought to its knees by a calamity.

As each family is struck by a pestilence that defies all treatment,

The sense of gloom looms overhead like dark brooding clouds

Ready to strike at hapless victims, the strong and young, wise and

Naive, all alike. The fear festers on  hapless fear-struck minds, the

Centre loses control over a maelstrom of chaos, a gyre the whirls faster

 And faster, drawing everything, inexorably into its ever gaping maw.

 

And we all share each other's grief, sending out condolences and

Platitudes that now sound virtual and hollow. The mind numbs, and

Hope becomes rare even as the numbers grow, those that are stricken

And those fearing to be struck. Every day one wakes up to a new world

Order, a world bowed down with grief, wise with the knowledge of life

 Tired, exhausted, confused, tending to the many only to lose them.