All of it is new
A Bloomsbury Zoom Spree
First, a walking tour of EYE:SPY stories:
We found Dickens’ horse in Doughty Mews,
All tacked up for derby day derring-dos
We heard of Horse Hospital hullabaloos,
And of a fox speaking to a duke’s statue.
We gasped at the life of Princess Caraboo;
And we lived on Chenies Street, as suffragettes do.
Then I thought that’s too many boos and doos
For you, so I dashed home, caught the rest on Zoom.
Let’s make a pact: nobody say ‘new normal’.
Just send me the links and I’ll dial into the room.
I heard how a brain injury makes you see the world
Anew. Too often, it’s a world with no space for you.
But I saw the future, and it’s a three-wheeled bike
With a headrest and a frame of shining blue –
It is freedom, fresh air, and a world unshrunk:
Three wheels are a way to roll out of the gloom.
I watched blind comics, then a dancing crew,
And saw an Unsightly Drag act too.
All from my sofa, with my cat – maybe with you.
It is not as we imagined.
None of it is normal.
All of it is new.
Galen O’Hanlon
Photograph: Andy Hayes @andyinfinity
> Return to 26 Writers in Residence homepage