while I’m still wondering
what life is all about
there lies no single doubt
in the fact
that humans are a very special kind
with all due respect —

at the end of the year
when they’d earned all rights
to rest and looking back
coming together
with people they really want to —

instead
they stress themselves out
run around
from one store to the other
buy stuff online
that’s cheap and useless
or expensive and useless as well —

you simply can’t tell
what they’re all after
pleasing the ads?
comforting the economy?
a heart attack?

I really liked the empty Corona streets
especially around Christmas
because the last Christmas I really enjoyed
was at my Grandma’s
on a cold and rainy day —

it had been Christmas Eve
in twenty nineteen
just three months before the pandemic
and six months before my Grandma died —

Corona had been a time to reflect
to think and enjoy
the peaceful streets
without fireworks
without cohorts of stressed people
without adverts what to buy
without sirens every five minutes
outside on those streets —

everything bad before Corona is back
but everything bad is worse than before
because within all the restrictions
I could smell freedom
and this freedom is gone
with every single firework
that’s going off in this city
every single evening just after sunset —

noise is the prison of civilization
the smell of gluvine its ugly companion.

        © Dominik Alexander / 2023
        © Meszárcsek Gergely (image)