Diary in self isolation

by Reem Fayyad Abdel-Samad

Two days
Three days
Four
The journey to day fourteen
A long long journey
Like waiting at midnight for a stranger to take us by surprise
May be,
Like a frightened person in the dark
With phasmophobia
They almost see a ghost about to choke them to death
Five days
Six days
Maybe he won’t come
May be
I bypassed the death zone
May be
He bypassed me on his way to someone else.
Wait!
The stranger still has time as
The road to day 14 remains
So long
And the arms of the clock conspire with the stranger against my
nerves
Their pulses laugh out loud cunningly
While staring at my loneliness
Between 4 walls
And 24 hours
And 14 days
And millions of thoughts
Reproducing in my mind
It pushes sleep off my bed of fatigue
Until it falls to the ground . . .
Smashing in the middle of the night
Seven days
Eight days
They said he normally arrives between day five and day seven
The heart is filled with ecstasy of hope
Yet the brain hits him with a bucket of cold water
“He might arrive on day 12 or even day 14!”
Eleven days
Twelve days
Thirteen days
Silence, silence, silence
Except for a pulsing clock on the wall
And a dripping faucet in the kitchen
And heart beats about to stop awaiting a stranger, that hasn’t
arrived despite the 14th day!