Who Will Mask The Cities?

    We all exaggerated our COVID experiences, but what about the medium itself that sustained us the air we breathe? Is it still safe, still usable? No. We are taking nature for granted in countless ways: deforestation, chemical emissions from factories, unnecessary fires, people smoking in frustration… Have you ever thought about this?—

We slept with our eyes open,

While wonders of the air we breathed silently killed,

While factories swallowed space,

While fires burned nights within —

but who counts the smokes, the fires, the factories?

We donned masks when the virus came,

Wearing them as guardians of ourselves…

but the city still breathes unprotected.

Where inhalers are compulsion, not choice,

When scars turn too dreadful to watch,

When stars blur into haze,

When people scream in the dead of night,

When inhalers become lifelines.

A kid clutches her chest—

asking with innocence,

"we wore a mask, but who will mask the city itself?"