The wind wraps you in its icy embrace

The raindrops feel like bullets raining down

Opening up wounds you thought you hid

As time turns the year from 21 to 22

They say it's contagious outside, so you retreat

Into the familiar comfort of family and home

Raised voices, you forget what it's about this time

Turn on your phone to 500 new work messages

You heat your bath water for the nth time

As people argue about social media captions

Interspersed with the latest cases and deaths

It's been 3 hours; you give up on the bath water

And think about being a blip on the sands of time

As you stare down at a device that holds your world

Wondering how it contains your past, present, future

As you stare out of a window on concrete walls

The peacock at your window stares in to your prison,

As you establish connections over little pixels

The device commands people to bring you things

After stepping out began to get too hazardous

It is a little over ten days into the new year

The climax to two years of soul-numbing fear.

It wraps itself around us, invisible yet felt

Is the monster around us or is it now part of us?