A Delicate Dance

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s the delicate dance that we perform around each other

That brings a tear into my eye

These little acts of caring

Like love across a two-metre divide

 

She stops around the corner to let me pass

I walk out into the road to give him space

To breathe freely, without fear

Polluting every waking moment

 

The bigger acts I cannot see:

The nurses and the doctors

The carers, and those making food

For other people without food

 

The people working round the clock in labs

To understand, identify and map

This pathogen. And all the people

Still at work so that the rest of us can shelter

 

And it all makes me cry, because, unlike the

Films and series on TV, we do not riot,

Attack each other out of fear and greed

Instead, we all of us take on this burden

 

We queue and wipe and wear a mask

And stand apart and some of us alone.

I choose to believe, because it makes me happy,

That’s its not just blind obedience and fear

 

That makes us do this; no – it’s love.

It’s solidarity. It’s the only thing we can do

Since the only ‘Safe Pair Of Hands’

We can rely on is our own

 

She stops around the corner to let me pass

I walk out into the road to give him space

To breathe freely, knowing that

This is a delicate dance of love