
Writer: Shahi Ezz Eldin
Editor: Khaled Mohamed
You’re scared, you’re terrified
You’ve been joking about death so often, been sharing memes about suicide, been wishing it unconsciously
But
When death came around, you held on to life as if you just came alive
You’re not ready to die, you’ve never really wanted to
You start thinking about all the things you wish you had done
All the things that were yet to come
The experiences you didn’t get to live through
Yet
You still want time
You want to find the love of your life
You want to graduate
You want to enter the major you’ve dreamt of
You want to read that book everyone recommended
You want to travel the world
You want to go to Disneyland
You want to go to Disneyland with children of your own
You don’t want to face him yet, you’re too scared to even mention his name
You’re surrounded by negativity from social media
You were once a telly addict
Now you want to get as far as possible from any source of news
The rates are leaping
First 2
Then 40
One-hundred-sixteen and counting
You find your self in quarantine
You’ve never wanted to hug your loved ones as much as you do now
You want to protect them from the attack
You don’t want to be attacked
Because you don’t want to be the reason they‘re in danger
You wash away the germs
But your terrors aren’t washed away,
No matter how much you put them under running water
Your country is in an emergency state
The president, with agony
Tells you to hug one other tighter this night
When will be the end to this fright?
Then you wake up
It was a nightmare
The realest nightmare your bewitched mind ever projected
You’re safe and sound
Your children are in your arms
And you tell them with pride
When I was your age, kids
We used to study when the world was ending
But it didn’t, because you were meant to survive
You were meant to go through hell and back
Just to feel the revenge
From whom?
The one you’ve hurt the most
You abused her, drained her, took her for granted, and slowly watched her bleed
You watched the earth plead
So she asked for help
The help came
The lesson was taught
A hard lesson for all of us
But you went through the panic
You stayed home
Stayed safe
You reminisce the days of covid19
And pray for the lost ones
So here’s just a reminder from your future self
You will get through this
You always did
But you need to hold up a little more
Fight a little harder
So you can hug your loved ones tighter
And realize that
Although it parted you far apart
The virus was a unifier
Right from the start