My sister-in-law, Nimmou Nilakantan, is a poet who lives in Bangalore, India. In her latest poem below, she captures the yearlong Covid 19 pandemic and gives it an apt name. This past weekend, she wrote to me of her country’s worsening crisis:

“India is literally burning and Bangalore is in shambles. The whole day we hear the sirens of ambulances and see horrific images on T.V and the newspapers. It is a grim scenario.”

THE PANDEMIC

Nimmou Nilakantan

We called it Pandemic
It was World War 3
Where we fought the Invisible Enemy…

We called it Pandemic
But it was World War 3
Every battle fought against the Daily Lonely…

We called it Pandemic
Every soldier had one task
To wear the weapon – A Mask…

We called it Pandemic
No condition could be worse
When humans became People Averse…

We called it Pandemic
It was World War 3
Imprisoned at home, no Longer Free…

We called it Pandemic
We wrote ourselves into history
By the failure of Human Society…

We called it Pandemic
It was World War 3
When will we ever return To Normalcy?