A City Turned Upside Down
by Rosie Stenhouse
Lockdown
City streets lie empty
No longer bustling with tourists and office workers
Buildings, like sentries, line the streets keeping watch over this new order of things
The ever-present hum of traffic replaced by birdsong
broken only by the passing of a bus carrying key workers
Familiar, weathered faces, sitting at the top of the steps into Waverley Station
Or outside the stores on Princes Street
Hoping for the few coins that passers-by might give
Now gone
No furlough to support them
As the pandemic removes their income
A tree stands forlorn, its narrow trunk and sparse branches
No longer needed for protection
A rectangular patch of bare earth, grass long dead
the only clue to the previous occupier of this spot
persuaded to take shelter in a city hotel
Hotels whose foyers and bars would
Echo with the voices of those from far off places
Whose rooms are a luxury that comes at a price
Find themselves occupied by a population
Unwelcome in such spaces in normal times
Bureaucracy and competition removed
Facilitates partnership working and a sense of purpose
Repurposing services to keep people safe
Rapidly
Within 48 hours
Unheard of
Policy makers and CEOs sit alongside those with experience of homelessness
Occupying equal size squares on the screen
Zoom the leveller, enabling access
For new voices to be heard
In the spaces where decisions are made
Norms and rules disrupted
This city is upside down
