SILENT HYBRIDS

By: Kim Watson

About The Poem

I wrote Silent Hybrids as a set of lyrics, for a song, to describe my anxieties just over a year after I started full-time working from home, during the pandemic. Silent Hybrids is about the fear of venturing outside as lockdown eases, despite feeling stir crazy and in need of fresh air and exercise, not to mention a change of scenery. It also references the things I’m missing most like my family in France and being able to spontaneously go for a swim. It is an observation also of how the demographic has changed when going outside on foot or on bike, with the traffic mostly electric and food delivery related too!

The Poem

I have a bath every weekend
To compensate for not being
Able to go for a swim

Haven’t seen a blood relative
in 18 months
It’s coming up two years
Sometimes I go outside
Sometimes I watch TV
Sometimes I can’t be bothered
To go for a walk

As I’ve exhausted all the places,
All the possibilities
Everywhere is busy
Nowhere but home feels safe

I’ve unfolded my bike
I might go for a ride
But I’m scared that I may collide
With electric scooters
Deliveroo drivers
Pizza box mopeds
Or silent hybrid Ubers

And I’m bored with baking,
Gardening and decorating
But I’m lucky to have this house
And this job

And at least on the tubes now
It’s more civilized and the
Only way to check for a smile
Is by their eyes

I have a bath every weekend
To compensate for not being
Able to go for a swim

I haven’t seen a blood relative
in 18 months
It’s coming up two years
Sometimes I go outside
Sometimes I watch TV
Sometimes I can’t be bothered
To go for a walk

I’ve exhausted all the places,
All the possibilities
Everywhere is busy
Nowhere but home feels safe

I’ve unfolded my bike
I might go for a ride
But I’m scared that I may collide
With electric scooters
Deliveroo drivers
Pizza box mopeds
Or silent hybrids

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