???? | The Key – Shamim Azad

‘A sense of loneliness and frustration. I feel I have lost control of my own life,’

The Francis Crick Institute collected reflective thoughts and feelings on postcards from visitors about the vaccination and the lockdown experience. When I was reading through the collected archive, the above quote stood out to me, as if it encompassed the whole range of feelings I went through from March 2020. It ended with me taking my second vaccine two days ago.

I imagined a character a lot like me, a brown Asian grandmother who has lived in London for over three decades. Her life in London began with her husband, and now she lives with her son and his family. Her grandkids are the apple of her eye. Her neighbours are her lifelong friends. And her daily trips to the corner grocery shop are the highlight of her day. But COVID-19 turned her pristine life upside down. My poem chronicles her emotional journey from the beginning of this pandemic to the end, with her waiting to take the vaccine. The vaccine represents a ‘key’ that enables her to unlock the door to freedom and hope.

I wrote this Sylheti poem keeping in mind the great oral tradition of Puthi. These Puthies are poems that tell a story and are usually performed by poets in front of an audience in the villages of Bangladesh.

Artist Biography