The Village, Spring and Summer 2020

When the world had gone mad

And things were so bad

And staying at home was the new going out

And life shrank to the size of a screen

But if we were lucky we still saw some green in the fields and the gardens we passed when we could.

Until everything stopped.

 

No outings, no meetings

No seeing our gran,

No chatting to besties or folks in the street, unless they were housemates and under our feet.

Like a film that has stuck on one frame we were trapped

Right here or right there and no pushing our luck.

 

Then the village was there.

 

We shared how to live, how to cook, how to thrive

How to cut our own hair, how to keep lives alive

How to decorate windows with rainbows and smiles

And thank yous and love yous and heroes in scrubs

All the while doing dances to get to the shop, to measure out distance and never to stop

for a gossip because

 

Careless coughs cost lives.

 

And as we were dancing and hopping and shopping

Away in the days and the nights out of sight

 

The nurses nursed

And the medics healed

And the porters ported

And the cleaners cleaned

And the shops found ways

To keep us fed

And the volunteers

Were the ones who led

 

And the plumbers, the makers, the menders, the servers

The deliverers and fixers and doers and drivers

Made living more easy and safer for us

While the bus

And the train

Got people to work

So teachers could teach

And make sure to reach

The kids feeling lonely and frightened and sad

To show that it wasn’t the whole world gone bad.

 

And everyone zoomed

And glimpsed people’s rooms

And their bookcases, partners, and cats on the prowl

While we waited for news

That the danger was gone

That the sea and the fields and the shops and the towns

Would be safe for a hug with someone we love

Because that is the magic that uncurls a frown.

 

And all the way through, the old and the young

The high risk and low risk and no-risk-allowed

Were wrapped in the safety of people who cared

Were helped by the people who noticed and shared

The people who live on our streets and our lanes

The folk of the village that showed us its heart

And carried us on through the fear and the dark

To the end that’s in sight just ahead, one more hill,

And we’re all going to make it, together, we will.

 

#NotAPoem by #NotAPoet June 2020