Clinging

Clinging to normality,
after eating breakfast
after having reading the paper
we walk from home
to back again,
where we check-in to work,
like any other day
we coffee break
like any other day
but on Skype,
we lunchbreak
in the kitchen
we spreadsheet and we Powerpoint
and afterward, we walk
from desk
to home again
clinging to normality.

This morning though
we saw
a white-tailed eagle
floating
in the morning silence
brushing the blue above,
with its shadow sunlit pale
but still
in this no-normality

we cling.

Now I can see… there are things that are different when working from home. Now on my fourth week from home, linking to Mish’s prompt at dVerse.
—
March 24, 2020

22 responses to “Clinging”

I like the repetition of “clinging to normality”….I could feel the slight desperation of finding something familiar in all that is not. The eagle was like a beautiful escape back to normalcy….oh, but then the ending….wow.

A powerful tale of of a poet taking baby steps into the unknown of tomorrow, and billions take them with you.

This is so well written Bjorn. Will this become our new normality? I suppose time will tell.

Consolation in the littlest things during times of trouble.

This is very touching in a different way…. you expressed it well.
we walk
from desk
to home again
clinging to normality.

Above it al the eagle still soars!

Sticking to a routine in these abnormal times is so important to a feeling of normalcy. Clinging is a good description, as an element of faith is there that things will get back to “normal” at some point.

I like the clinging to normality regardless.

An interesting description of what has become the new normal for many of us. We compliant humans are pretty adaptable when we have to be. Your second stanza however just made everything beautiful. 🙂💕

“Clinging to normality” is so apropos for the times. In clinging so hard, it makes everything that is not part of that normality so much more noticable. It’s not just -we saw a bird earlier- it becomes
“we saw
a white-tailed eagle
floating
in the morning silence
brushing the blue above,”

You are so right. New normal leads to no normal.

Summed up succinctly and realistically, Björn. I’m on top of the housework and have lots of time for writing and reading, but I crave human contact all day until my husband comes home. He is a key worker, who continues to do his job until told otherwise. I try to video-call my daughter and mother-in-law several times a day, and have telephone, email and Facebook messaging contact with other friends and family, but I don’t think I’ll get used to the lack of physical contact. What a breath of fresh air is the ‘white-tailed eagle / floating / in the morning silence’.

This is a beautiful way to express the desperation of clinging to the normalcy of daily life. And truly, when we don’t find what we want, we tend to appreciate the things that we didn’t notice before. Lovely poem.

I love the imagery of the white tailed eagle appearing while you are adjusting to a different way of seeing.

the same and yet very very different…(K)

In the non-normal, an ominous sighting?
Hang in there. (week 2)

Normality within no-normality…
But without it, you may have missed the white-tailed eagle! Always something to be thankful for!

eerie rendition of our new ‘normalcy’ … glad you still have work 🙂

Lovely piece Bjorn. So liked the ambiguity in the last few lines – ‘…pale/but in this no-normality//we cling. ‘ – who’s pale? who’s clinging? to what? It’s all a bit adrift – but still beautiful.