Blog#1

Write a prose soliloquy in which you are either Hamlet or Ophelia commenting on the world around you in 2020.

Ophelia’s soliloquy

What is this I see around me? What is this we have lived through? Is the world coming to a halt? Oh it has been a long year thus far. But how? For we find ourselves still within the third month of this year. How have things changed so drastically? I thought we had turned a new page, commenced our New Year’s Resolutions, but alas, nothing is resolved. New obstacles assemble themselves before us. 

It tore through homes, through nature’s gifts, destroyed the livelihood of many. Oh how tragic the ravaging traps of fire were to the earth! We were all in its path, some just closer than others. Oh how our breathing mechanisms were tested during this time, how it dug its way into every crevice, until all one could see was fire where homes stood, was fire where animals claimed as their sanctuary, was fire where fire should not be. I prayed for this to end. I did not favour what I saw around me. It truly felt as though the world was crumbling, in every sense of the word. 

The flames were eventually subdued and life began to appear brighter, at last, the flames were not the source of this light. There was hope after all. But wait, mass hysteria, sickness, they call it, ‘coronavirus’. A pandemic. My how it has spread just as quickly as fires tore through our surroundings. Nations affected, lives affected. When will this all end? Oh I have never witnessed humanity crumble until I gazed upon brawls, humans fighting over material items. Of all things, toilet paper? That should be our undoing? We should be united! Standing together! They do not listen. Shelves cleared, baskets filled to their capacity, hysteria has been awoken within many. Madness! I say. They do not listen. When oh when did this all happen? For I thought the year had begun not too long ago. What may happen in the next month or two? No one would know. 

I hope, one day in the near future, when I ask myself what I see around me, pleasant sights will reappear and the world will not feel as if it is crumbling before my eyes. I would view the best of humanity, the beauty within the world. Until then, all I am able to do is wait, simply wait, until I possess the ability to gaze around, unrestricted, and exclaim, “Look, here we are, alive!”. Then, I wonder, would they listen? 

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