Monthly Archives: April 2020

The Effect of Words

In the ebb and flow of conversation

Words convey much more than facts

They are used ON you!

 

They can, for example, encourage, chastise, cheer you, pull you down

What they always do, because they are intended to, is to affect you

If you do not realise this, you will become a victim of words

 

Every time someone speaks to you

Ask yourself the questions “Why have they said that?”

And “Why in those words ?”

 

The answers might not suggest a bad reason

Most people do not use words as a weapon

At least not all the time

 

But they do want the words to have an effect.

Hope

Hope neither lends itself to reason

Nor the strictures of the finite

It has little shape but great substance

Which, paradoxically, laughs at Newton’s Laws

 

Instead, the well it draws from is unfathomably deep

Like quantum particles it can be in more than one place at a time

And, as with dark matter, defies observation and containment

It is, and always will be, ephemeral

 

None-the-less, all humanity relies upon it daily

Especially so, in times such as these

 

 

Save Lives

Off in an ambulance without goodbye

Maybe to live, perhaps to die

Where is the justice, how and why

It has to stop, we have to try

 

Keep your distance, wash your hands

Safeguard essential workers across the lands

Do your best to follow the plans

Or you could be marching to the heavenly bands

The Visitor

Listen if you will in the quiet of the night

To the scraping and scratching of things out of sight

To the noise of blood as it roars in your ears

To the beat of your heart as it measures your fears

 

Somewhere in the house a clock says tick-tock

Below in the street a key clicks in its lock

The third stair from the top creaks as it might

When stepped on in stealth by something so slight

 

Then hinges in want of an oil drop or more

Announce a faint shadow at the bedroom door

You turn on a light to see who is there

Not even a dust mote moves in the air

 

Return to the pillow, try to find sleep

The visitor is gone, no need to weep

Confinement

I’ll be two months old tomorrow

Half of that in what the telly calls ‘lockdown’

Mum and dad try to hide their sorrow

Not able to take me round town

 

Grandparents’ hugs; just a distant memory

I must hope they are still alright

One day there might be a remedy

Though that day isn’t yet in sight

 

Tight confines of mother’s womb

Now swapped for my parents’ home

This serves as a loving classroom

But how long for the chance to roam?

Remember

When Covid has, at last, gone

When public places once more throng

Recall with sorrow those we lost

As countries count the final cost

 

Then talk of all the brave and true

Who selflessly thought of you

Not going out was hard enough

Many faced challenges much more tough

 

Medics, police and essential folk

Donned again their professional yolk

Their lives at risk to safeguard yours

No choice but adventure out of doors

 

REMEMBER well the sacrifice

Of HEROES who did not think twice