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Officials love it. Politicians let it roll
off their tongues
in a slimy party line.
Dictionaries claim ‘no previous instance;
never before experienced;
unexampled or unparalleled.’
But plagues and epidemics happen. Often.
Economies have been brought
to the brink of collapse before.
It’s a word that can’t be trusted.
At first, it meant ‘Uncharted waters.
No comparable data.
We’ve no idea what’s going on.’
A year later, it’s a cliché. A reassurance.
A long word to make us glaze over.
A proxy for getting it wrong.
Having never seen something before
is no excuse for acting the fool.
Confusion leaks from No 10,
although that’s not unprecedented.
Kathy Gee’s career was in heritage and in leadership coaching. She enjoys hybrid projects combining poetry with music, drama and film. 21st-century Poetry is edited by Andy Croft, email [email protected].
