Robert Hampson
LOCKDOWN ODE 3: DOUBLE EXPOSURE
I.
we have bleached all the surfaces
in the apartment
it’s what we used to call
documentation
self-portraits on the way to school
taking shifts / in a makeshift bed
cowboy hats in Berlin bars
now hygiene rules
& we wash our hands / in medical alcohol
II.
we cut magazines / to confront the virus
we swap our accessible life
for a cheap & creative / melancholia
III.
his collaborators are all suits
lockdown celebrities
their words come out slurred
we try not to read / the opinion pieces
there’s a spectre / in the transmission
unnerving to think /this could be the end
IV.
she came back home
from lockdown at the factory
hot & sweaty
in the new merchandise
hair shaved close to the scalp
V.
we hadn’t been out for days
we were banned from Instagram
for inciting panic
we removed our masks / to talk on the phone
there were tears in the fabric
& the music went quieter
we live by the thermometer
& go to bed in the afternoons
I.
we have bleached all the surfaces
in the apartment
it’s what we used to call
documentation
self-portraits on the way to school
taking shifts / in a makeshift bed
cowboy hats in Berlin bars
now hygiene rules
& we wash our hands / in medical alcohol
II.
we cut magazines / to confront the virus
we swap our accessible life
for a cheap & creative / melancholia
III.
his collaborators are all suits
lockdown celebrities
their words come out slurred
we try not to read / the opinion pieces
there’s a spectre / in the transmission
unnerving to think /this could be the end
IV.
she came back home
from lockdown at the factory
hot & sweaty
in the new merchandise
hair shaved close to the scalp
V.
we hadn’t been out for days
we were banned from Instagram
for inciting panic
we removed our masks / to talk on the phone
there were tears in the fabric
& the music went quieter
we live by the thermometer
& go to bed in the afternoons
© Copyright Robert Hampson 2020
Robert Hampson’s most recent publications include reworked disasters (Knives, Forks and Spoons, 2013) and Liverpool (Hugs &) Kisses with Robert Sheppard (Pushtika / Ship of Fools, 2015). He also contributed to Sheppard’s Poetry of the European Union of Imaginary Authors (Shearsman, 2017). Other recent publications include Clasp: late modernist poetry in London in the 1970s (Shearsman, 2016) co-edited with Ken Edwards and The Allen Fisher Companion (Shearsman, 2020), co-edited with cris cheek.
