In the plague days there will be sun
and wind blowing clouds across, not enough rain
to fill the reservoir up, and bright yellow flowers:
spindling dandelions, saffron ultraviolet
reaching for the daylight, and closed tight at dusk,
against fascism.
There Dame Vera singing out, gloved up and masked
in ceremonial Tyvek airlifted to Dresden
and frail humming cellos two metres apart,
land of hope and glory, we will meet again,
and across the way, tears and a fresh springtime salad
against fascism.
There rainbows in windows, all spectra and none
beginning to crumple and weather in sunlight,
there soft paper cloths, dirty masks on the ground,
there checkerboard squares on a flickering screen,
against fascism.
The salad you shopped for with longing, a base
that you get by the bushel for free with the milk,
and black sesame seeds grabbed as spectacles fog
while podcasts from Australia repeat in your ears,
against fascism.
In the plague times, the neighbours and their union jacks
and the Thursday applause for key workers, made heroes
against their own will, at their bosses' commands,
struck down in the dark hours, awakened and gasping
against fascism.
Six hard-boiled eggs and dried sausage against fascism.
Herb Robert against fascism, the first cygnets against fascism,
the new lambs, the wild ponies in foal against fascism,
the spider web twisted, rebuilt, against fascism.
I have told my husband, born after the war
as they built us our safety and health out of bricks
from the old channel houses, collapsed and reclaimed
that our fascists would bristle if called by that name
still unknowing.
And he told me that neither did they,
in their symbols of national pride, in their woods,
in their gardens and sausage and beer, in their flag,
and their white roses crumbling, petal and stem,
against fascism.
In the plague days there will be sun,
dishes washed against fascism,
hat feathers lost and replaced against fascism,
nursing homes shut tight and sung,
run, rabbit, run, rabbit, run, run, run,
against fascism.
Margaret Corvid is a writer, and activist based in the South West of the UK. Her writing has also appeared in the Guardian, and Cosmopolitan. She writes on sex work, sexuality, gender, and many other labour issues.