Wilbrahams Covid-19. Karen Redman
For our next item in our Wilbrahams Covid-19 series Karen Redman turns to her literary skills with a lovely poem.
Martin Gienke
I have been asked to write something for the Covid19 series… but I really don’t think I can add anything to our experience under lockdown whilst caring for a child with severe disabilities which hasn’t already been said so eloquently by Barry Haynes…. Our daughter, Martha, is likewise (to Josh) remarkably content, given that she is with her boring parents day in day out…!! So this is my slightly alternative offering…
Just biding our time..
Not all now, has changed
Some parts stayed the same..
The street and the house
The daughter, the spouse
We’re just staying in
(It’s wearing quite thin!)
Not much going out
Around and about..
This virus you know
So small, I’ll be blowed!
Yet, chaos it’s caused
The country’s ‘on pause..’
We’re doing just fine
Here, biding our time..
A bit of a haze
With mingling of days..
Not all’s getting done..
Enjoying the sun
The garden, the walks
The long ‘catch up’ talks
The booze and the pies
Some beautiful skies!
Behind on the chores
(I find it just bores..)
Not much to excite
To challenge or fight
But no living hell..
So long as we’re well
There’s always tomorrow..
The housework can follow!
Less ‘bustle and strife’
In this, alter-life
There are pangs of yearning
Intense and quite churning
Luck has it, they wane
Else, we’d go insane!
Tho’ wouldn’t it be nice
Such ‘sugar and spice’
To feel free to hug
With no chance of bugs?
To meet and to sing
Just ‘doing our thing’
As always we did
Before we all hid
Hope one day we will..
Some ‘helluva thrill’
That great day would be
For you and for me!
But those on the chart
(And held in my heart)
Therein lies the rub
With this vicious bug..
A terrible toll..
Some young, mainly old
How many, all told?
Once vibrant, now cold..
The stories, the tears
The missing, lost years
The anguish, the strain
The heartbreak, the pain..
Once over and passed
Will new habits last?
These lessons we learned
Whilst pandemic burned..
Things now, we value
People we hallow
The heroes we salute
This ‘lack of dispute’
Shall recall, we this
When hug we and kiss?
Resuming our lives..
Assuming we survive
And when we emerge
What then will we find?
I don’t really know
Just biding our time..
Karen Redman