Breathe

By: Sara Knight

About The Poem

A exploration of the anxieties and
experiences of COVID times inspired by a
trip on the tube that captured a great deal of
the thought behind this poem.

The Poem

I’ve never noticed eyes so bare, every vein, line and
marble curve
My smile stays hidden with the lip that I’ve bitten, I
see so free as you look back at me
Protected from you for four more minutes, a shielded dream is all it can be.
Looking not staring with the message we’re sharing, the time ticks on till this stranger is
gone
We spread a viral vibration not a contamination, can I look any longer to stop would be
wrong.

All I can see is lonely eyes, all I can breathe is this disguise
Is this real can you decide if a brave new world can harmonize
All I can see is lonely eyes, all I can breathe is this disguise
Is this real, YOU decide
Take a step through the fog of coughs and cries
And just breathe.

Social plates underground instil their shifting and shake bass hard with the fear their lifting
Dismissed information deals dangerous drifting, this misinformation makes sceptic sifting
We’re gifting, all those powers that be
With an “is what it is” and “it won’t affect me”
Sitting on the tube not knowing what’s truth while a beautiful stranger shows you how to
breathe
Can your eyes help me to see, a future safe from the ceremony
Of looking away from hidden beauty and believing everything I read.
But let’s not forget, let’s not forget when the water was blue and celebrity dead
The frontline warriors still called low skilled were the fame and glory that stop the spread
A vision alive, to learn from this is the least we can do for the tears we’ve shed.