When autumn leaves

#UCTLockDownLetters is a new feature on the University of Cape Town (UCT) news site. Staff, students, parents of students: we want to hear about your experiences of work and life in lockdown. Emails, audio and video clips, prose and poetry are also very welcome. This is your space.

20 May 2020

This contribution comes from Yacoob Manjoo, communications coordinator at UCT’s Information and Communication Technology Services.

From green to red,
brown then dead,
leaves fall
as seasons change –
a reminder to man:
life never stays the same.

We crave
peace and prosperity,
disliking austerity;
comforted by stability,
forgetting such things are bound by fragility.

Around the corner,
lies adversity in wait;
lurking like an unwelcome shadow,
ready to pounce,
fulfilling our fate.

Such are the vicissitudes of life:
one day good,
the next less so,
but through it all,
we hold fast to our faith
and on we go.

In these days
of turmoil,
fear,
and restriction,
we take it day by day,
survival the only mission.

Doing our part,
by staying apart,
home-bound frustration
necessary to save the nation
from an invisible disease,
spreading like wildfire;
governments sweating
fearing collapse of economic empire.

Masks everywhere,
caution aplenty,
as malls, parks, and stadiums
sit deserted,
so empty.

Hunger,
job losses,
companies downsizing,
desperation palpable,
the anger is rising.

Days and nights turn colder,
as Winter approaches,
and still no end,
the virus
on our freedom encroaches.

We sit and we wait,
day by day,
hoping scientists will soon
send the priceless cure our way.

And while hope springs eternal,
and human efforts must be made,
know that this virus came with purpose;
it won’t depart until changes are saved.

So look within,
at what this episode can teach you,
for without such struggle,
the lessons may never reach you.

Correct yourself,
while days and nights are strange,
adjust habits, attitudes, and speech,
make deeply personal change.

For,
when Autumn leaves,
and Winter arrives,
may we all reset,
and for a better world strive.