The Mancunian Yank

 With brand new, harsher restrictions in place and Greater Manchester trying to avoid another local lockdown it seems like Covid-19 has suddenly become very real to a lot of people (as if the death toll and people affected before was just a myth).   Like mental health, we now all know someone whose been affected by this pandemic, with the lasting effects of it probably still being felt by the generations ahead of us thirty years down the line. After eight weeks of staying at home and going nuttier than a jar of peanut butter it finally sank into my thickly fluffy afroed head that stuff is always going to be hitting the fan no matter how hard I try and keep myself out of it all and instead of getting stressed I've taken a lot of deep breaths and counted to ten...about a hundred thousand times a day, because it's not my job to get worried about all the things that I can't fix, it's my job to stay cool, calm and collected. If you had told me two years ago that I'd be l...

Race isn’t a hot topic, click bait for a trend, Driving up the number of hits as the heart rates drop and expire, You try and keep it out of the conversation because you don’t want being human to get political but it’s too late, Hate spread a virus of intolerance, fear spread a pandemic of ignorance. I never thought I’d be hearing Eric from an ocean away, there were dozens before him and they’ll be dozens after him. I don’t cry on the bus when she complains she can’t breathe, I gave her my spare mask but vanity prevails over safety.   Vision blurred as I breathe quietly, grateful for the breathe I have. She doesn’t know how much it hurts for me to hear those words echoed. I thought I’d left that behind but violence is a worldwide pandemic, inescapable. I laugh as we head into town on the bus. “Well at least you don’t have glasses.” I try and put a sunny spin on it, glad she can’t see me wince as she takes off her mask to put in her hair, TLC’s Unpretty playing in my m...