Narrow Escapes: A Poetic Diary of the Coronavirus Pandemic

Narrow Escapes: A Poetic Diary of the Coronavirus Pandemic is a collection of 238 short to mid-length poems by Nigerian poet Tanure Ojaide written during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Some poems follow the format of diary entries and are dated, while some do not. In his poems, Ojaide recounts his ever-present fear of the virus as his relatives, son, and daughter eventually fall ill from COVID-19, which he describes as “It’s like expecting an ambush anytime?” (Ojaide 206), so that he is only “narrowly escaping” from COVID-19. He writes in his poem “Good News,” “Lightning struck fear into everybody. / It missed by just a sliver / to hit a tree under which she sheltered” (Ojaide 238), using lightning almost hitting him as a metaphor for COVID-19 to highlight the sense of danger from living in close proximity to the virus. The second stanza repeats the metaphor of lightning which narrowly misses him, reflecting the stress of constantly living in fear of catching the virus.

He also discusses social issues amid the global pandemic, such as wealth disparity in Nigeria in the context of quarantine. In his poem “Social Distancing,” he writes, “The lords are suspending their house helps / after stockpiling their pantries and vacant rooms” (Ojaide 42), juxtaposing the overconsumption of resources by the rich with workers who have lost their jobs so that their employers can practice social distancing. He criticizes the rich for social distancing at the expense of the less fortunate and satirizes how the pandemic has only forced the rich to forgo minor luxuries, highlighting the double meaning of “social distancing”—social distancing has made the gap between social classes more obvious. On a global scale, he targets world leaders for exacerbating the spread of COVID-19 in his poem “They Prepared the Earth for Its Coming,” writing, “they elected nincompoops as presidents / in strategic nations to be worthy allies / to arm it [COVID-19] with supernatural precision” (Ojaide 50).

Despite his fear of the virus and dissatisfaction towards how Nigeria and the global community handled the pandemic, he shares optimistic observations amid the influx of worrying news in his poem “There’s Other News.” “For many, the coming of downpours / to douse the intolerable heat of the tropics; / in some lands despite the lockdown / they cannot resist the seduction of cherry blossoms” (Ojaide 61) are but a few of the joyous happenings during the pandemic, both locally and around the world. He emphasizes the importance of community and social connections in soothing the negative emotions brought by lockdown with his poem “For the Other’s Sake,” saying, “Reaching others fills day and night with words / to calm nerves; balm to the sore hearts we suffer / from the rack of Covid-19” (Ojaide 62). This poetry collection records the emotional ups and downs that Ojaide experiences in the first year of lockdown, the events that stoke his fear and ones that assuage it, and inspires readers to maintain a positive mindset during lockdown.