suspended in time we wait

Note: “suspended in time we wait” was written in September 2020. During the COVID-19 lockdown, from end March 2020 to October 2020, I was forced to “shelter-at-place” in a small town in India. The measures that were deployed by the state to contain the pandemic were reminiscent of the strategy of segmentation enforced during the plague epidemic in medieval Europe. With a first-hand worm’s-eye view, I could observe the dispersion and working of what Foucault terms as capillary power. The anger, helplessness and frustration that I experienced as a public health physician and epidemiologist gave birth to this poem.

C Sathyamala (csathyamala@gmail.com) is currently with the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Hague, as a postdoctoral academic researcher. Some three years ago, during a period of adversity, poetry came upon her. Since then, they walk hand in hand, delighting in each other.