On Saturday 31 October, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that England will be going into a second lockdown from midnight Thursday 5 November. This announcement reminded me of my poem “Furlough”, which is reproduced below:

Furlough
During the time
Of Corona, girls unseen
May fulfil a lonely man’s dream.
While poets smile
And spend their time
Composing rhyme.

“An Englishman’s home is his castle,”
Neighbours say.
And, wishing to avoid hassle,
They look the other way
As girls (ineligible for furlough)
Come and go.

And time
Hangs heavy on the poet’s hands.
Therefore, he composes rhyme
About a crossed line
And resistance
To social distance.

(“Furlough” can be found in “Light and Shade”, which can be accessed here, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Light-Shade-serious-not-poems-ebook/dp/B08B4X3GVX