Infodemic Blues
I step into Stepford
on the blue mourning walk
for a real gone life.
A masked man at the bank
disdains an old smoker
at a cigarette’s end.
Three cyclists glance left right
beyond the Highway Code
in some secular sin.
A child surveys in
Orwellian fashion.
I step on the hushed road.
People talk in twos of
vacant situations
and sneeze in the sleeve notes.
I slalom my way through
contactless contact and
cue the hue of a queue.
There’s immediacy
and covidiocy
in this infodemic.
Thinking on Pilate’s hands
and gulls gone fishing,
I walk on through the sun.
John Quinn is an ex-teacher writer and performer from Dundee. His poetry in Scots and English has appeared in publications such as Northwords Now, Southlight, Poetry Scotland and Scotia Extremis. He is the author of a modern historical novel ‘he Eyes of Grace O’Malley (Black Wolf Books) and a play O Halflins an Hecklers an Weavers an Weemin about the City of Dundee and the jute industry.
new boots and pantisocracies 