Dear LPG,

I like to write poetry from time to time and this offering, a free verse poem, was born out of what recent years have forced me to see beginning to happen all around me.  I found it again while using the time I have had at home alone to go through some of my old papers.

A year or two ago I saw the world going this way and could not help but write what I felt down, but I think that there is even more evidence of the way things are, and are likely to be, when I think of the way that the recent pandemic has changed the whole world.  So, while no one can really be sure of where their future lies, but with an element of where I envisage our world to be going even sooner than we might think, I would like to share my thoughts... 

Future Unknown

The future looks bleak

The shops are closed

And boarded up

Graffiti everywhere

Shops will close and

there will be no retail therapy anymore.

Homes will be made on the

land; once full of vitality

Tall towers like warehouses,

Homes will lose millions

But no one goes anywhere

Shopping and entertainment

will be done online.

Friendships will be virtual

Even hospitals will be run

With robot doctors and nurses

Diagnosed online.  Treatment will

Be administrated via internet

No more tender administration

By human hand

Procreation will be made

by artificial aid

To think of the world like this

brings pain and heartache

No more a walk on the beach

sand beneath our feet

or a sunny walk in the park.

Seeing lovers holding hands

listening to the birdsong.

Everyone is cocooned into their

Own space

Forgotten the old days

when people enjoyed each other’s company,

a drink and a laugh.

A sterile forlorn existence

But no one knows how

Different it was in the old days

The young ones

don’t want to know

about the olden days

Curiosity has dried up

Don’t they know what was

Sacrificed for them?

No they don’t.

They live for the now

My nightmare future may seem bleak

Surely the human heart will still feel love and compassion

I really hope so.

JD, Sydenham