For Rosa
Rosa,her smile tells stories
straight to the heart.
She speaks in two languages;
signing illustrating her emotions,
spoken words the context
for us who are awed by her.
That stride off to nursery
with no hesitation.
She knows none of the
fear her parents hold.
But for noticing that
they hold her a little too tight.
Omicron-a benign name
Like a young sister of a unicorn maybe?
Magical almost- except-except
The truth is that it’s another viral variant
Spreading its tentacles across
our city, the country, the world a renewed threat
to our lives and our well-being.
For Rosa much of her life so far
has danced between the full colour version
then back to the greyed out
Lockdown version.
Play boxed away into homes
Fearful of a virus that doesn’t
only change lives-it threatens to take life.
There’s the fear, not captured in Rosas short memory
but for her Mum and Dad its very real
sitting by her bed.
An orchestra of sounds and light
the hospital machines symphonies
tell of laboured breath
and blue lights.
It’s just an extra chromosome after all?
But every time the virus rises up
So does the fear.
It’s only a mild illness -for you maybe!
Why bother with masks or isolating?
It’s for that smile.
It’s for life in all its colours.
It’s for Rosa.
No comments:
Post a Comment