This was our Covid lockdown reality

Year 13, Taieri College

SOMETHING so minute that we cannot see, has taken the world hostage for too many weeks.

Roads are practically empty, schools are closed and the only place where I am safe is in my own home.

Masks, hand sanitiser, goggles, and soap, not to mention toilet paper has flown off the shelves.

Two metres apart, I guess you must look at different shelves.

You turn the other way when there is somebody you see.

Floors are pristine, scrubbed ferociously with soap.

‘‘This is gonna last for how many more weeks?’’

Day after day, cooped up in my bed at home, nowhere to be, nowhere to go, the world is closed.

Desperate for fresh air, the window is hardly closed.

Really craving some pasta, sorry, wasn’t on the shelves.

I blame that panic buyer stuffing the supermarket into their home.

Go on to social media, more cases than yesterday.

Something sad to see. And I know that it will get worse for at least a few more weeks.

But don’t worry, we won’t get sick unless we don’t wash our hands with soap.

I forgot to buy modelling clay. I guess I’ll just have to use soap instead.

I can’t even properly work out, thanks to the gym being closed.

Guess it’s a good time to practice the splits. I’ll master it in a few weeks.

It will distract me from the thought of all those empty shelves.

Share my music covers online, for all my whanau to see.

It’s not so bad after all, being locked at home.

I am thankful I can call my friends, from the comfort of my home.

I have bonded with my family through figurines made of soap.

Even at home, there is so much to do, so much to see.

Eventually you forget that everything around you is closed.

You dig out those packets of pineapple lumps hidden at the back of your shelves. They are bound to last for at least two weeks.

This is our new reality. A reality that could last weeks.

At least we are safe. At least we have food. At least we have a home.

Some people won’t have anything on their shelves.

Some people can’t wash their hands with soap.

Some people have lost everything because their business is closed.

And that is not something you cannot see.

People are getting sick for weeks, whether or not they had soap.

That’s why it’s better to stay home, it’s why everything has closed.

Don’t rob the elderly of the shelves.

They are people just like us, you see.