Clapping the carers

​Covid 19 Pandemic
Friday March 13th 2020
‘Hard Times Require Furious Dancing.’ Alice Walker, 2010
Is it time then?
Old Testament terror again?
We sit and squabble over little things and
The massive carries on.
Fists full of cancelled plans.
Empty 747s taking off and landing only.
To keep their landing slot.
Extend the airports, why not?

Sunday March 15th
Some members are already self-isolating – ahead of the news.
Prospective new members visit.
Drinks offered, carefully, in the shared kitchen.
No shaking hands.
We have signs up now on all the doors,
(New soap and paper towels)
Wash your Hands.

Friday March 20th
Our regular chaotic Friday meals cancelled.
One of the joys - if you can find a chair and keep it J
Bring what you would have eaten any way,
Sometimes five soups, bread and one pudding, mostly feasts, always good.
Three new children living here, with two already resident.
The film shows, spontaneous chalking, singing, hide and seek,
House concerts, party room meetings
Stop.
We have struggled to find ways to explain to 5 children,
the youngest five years old, what social distance means.
Building a new house for the snails can’t be shared.
We wave and smile when we’re hanging out washing in the front
and they’re on the swing. They run over,
We hold out our hands and smile,
stop!
They nod, sombre expressions,
and then get on with digging, running,
playing football with the dog.
We have gone digital:
Birthdays, dancing, meetings, singing – some time lag.
Can’t garden online, or cut hair, or….
Airports, borders, churches, schools, pubs, cafes
Shut.

Tuesday March 24th
Govt says,
stay home.
Lock down, protect the vulnerable.
Nurses and doctors say, stay home.
We stay home.

Friday, March 27
Here they are, three of the five
Friday night,
near the raised beds and greenhouses
with their mum and dad and a few others
building a fire out back.
It’s cold. Some singing, a lot of laughs.
The building site that will be their new home
continues. Diggers loom up to ground floor windows
scaffolding rises.
Meanwhile, Heads of State
The Prime Minister, Chief Medical Officer and the heir to the throne
with symptoms or tested positive.
There’s a birthday tomorrow.
Digital furious dancing replaces the party room gatherings
We’re so good at.

Covid 19
We went out onto terraces, balconies last night
To ‘clap the carers’
‘Sometimes you just have to make a lot of noise.’