We live on a main road. It’s always loud.
There’s always traffic roaring by outside.
Kids playing, and at night there’s always crowds
Of people laughing, drunk. And I’d have lied
If I had said, before all this, that we
Did not become annoyed. Then it got quiet
When lockdown started. And it seemed to me
That it was for the best. I’d not deny it
Was eerie. When we couldn’t hear the shrieks
Of laughing kids, drunk blokes outside the door
Singing, or squabbling. None of that, for for weeks.
But now, we’ve started hearing them once more.
And how I wish we could go back to nothing
Instead of people shouting, drinking,
coughing.
Tom Juniper Poetry 