Silent Wars

The wind whistled on an empty street. A styrofoam cup breaks the silence as it dragged along the asphalt road. Two stray dogs, obviously unbothered while enjoying their nap on a fine Monday morning, perked their ears to the sound out of instinct. The scene, akin to apocalyptic movie scenarios, was eerie; as if the world was suddenly devoid of humans. It was as if the always hustling two-legged superior creatures were in a hurry to leave the planet. And the scattered broken plastic spoons and the flattened McDonald meal boxes were the only ones that served as proof that they once roamed this world.

It was indeed a different Monday morning. The streetlights switched their colors for no one. The ‘Walk’ sign changed from green to red to an empty pedestrian lane. The highway that was once full of angry honking and rushing pedestrians of different ages was now nothing but a long stretch of a gray band. Buildings, despite differences in sizes and colors, bore one thing similar: the “Closed” sign plastered on their doors. The world was at a standstill.

It’s already been two months since the news came out. I was on one of my grocery runs when I received a text from my colleague that work may be postponed. Roads will be closing and every establishment would have to shut down their operations. The virus was spreading- fast. And the only way to stop it was to deprive it of hosts. Flights were canceled. Public transport was halted. Everybody stayed at home. A lockdown was issued. From then on, it might have been that time just simply stopped in the Philippines.

A silent war was being fought.

Wars, for some.

While the rest of the world found comfort in their homes, my mind found a space to build cobwebs. Not because it wasn’t thinking of anything, it was the opposite. It was on full-energy mode, charging head-ons to simple worries, connecting every single thing to each other. Next thing I knew, my anxiety was up on levels I couldn’t even have imagined. The news didn’t help either. Every day, I wake up to devastating headlines.

Frontliners being mistreated, dying, and neglected while the so-called elites used their VIP cards (that came with their status) to be treated apart from the rest.

Hospital staff dying one by one due to a lack of PPEs while the rich flaunted their designer wardrobes.

The poor wandering aimlessly, trying to look for jobs while the ignorant called them out as “pasaway” (rule breaker) as she flashed her Netflix subscription in one of her instagram stories.

The busy macrocosm may have been on a standstill, but lives never stopped; rather, it was moving faster than ever before.

The worries of tomorrow were silent in form. First, the travel plans were canceled. Next, the future became unknown. Goals on journals now ended with question marks. We became unsure of everything. That small tug of anxiety was enough to shake the whole cobwebs. The night was too silent for the loud thoughts. The insects chirped but a thousand voices screamed inside my mind. Where are we possibly heading? What to do with the blueprint of 2020 I made during New Year’s eve? Will we ever go back? Will we ever survive? The days were long, the nights longer. Any light of assurance dimmed, no one was now sure of anything.

The silent wars are still being fought.

But wars end. When? No one knows. Nonetheless, continue the fight. The light at the end of the tunnel will come soon.