Patricia Isabel Lucido
graduated from the Ateneo de Manila University in 2017 with a degree in Literature (English). Currently, she is working in the media industry, managing projects for a subtitling/dubbing company. In her free time, she writes about the darker side of life and the everyday fears of the middle-class. She likes household plants, empty beaches, lukewarm tea, and ghost stories. You may read her works on her site: bypatricialucido.wordpress.com, and reach her on Instagram/Facebook: @lucidreeming.
Living in isolation is one of the newer fears in our digital age. With the rapid evolution of technologies lifestyles, being human becomes second-class to our roles in society. We are part of a collective before we are individuals. We relate to the world and experience the world through our relationships with others. But suddenly, with the appearance of COVID-19 and introduction of a "new normal," we are forced out of these social routines and into a confrontation with our fears. This selection of poems explores the hidden fears and darker thoughts that I have come across while in quarantine, such as an address to the "new normal" (reCreation), musings on the state of the world (Rainfall), and the end of the world (The Howling, The Birth). I hope to bring forth an alternative conversation, a questioning of how it really is to create and live in a "new normal."
(c) VALS, 2021