This Week's Words

So take off your mask and turn off your mobile phones. Let's get this thing going on like Mrs Jones. Cold beer dark rum no volume control Jazz Latin swing reggae got soul. Take your leave of lockdown And let some old Motown Rattle your bones. Like many others around the world Tam Mullen searched for a way to express his thoughts and feelings during the pandemic. In a collection of fifty-two rhyming poems birthed during that period Mullen reflects on growth change and uncertainty as well as political ineptitude and the complexity of our relationships with inanimate objects. Penned weekly during the lockdown in the UK Mullen's poems sometimes touching and sometimes humorous explore such diverse topics as Zoom-induced psychosis overused cliches an album of family photographs a cucumber discovered in the back of a salad drawer the gateway drug of young love a kitchen disco in full flow and much more. This Week's Words is a volume of rhyming poetry that reflects on one man's journey through his thoughts and feelings during a global pandemic lockdown.