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POETRY IN THE PLAGUE YEAR
Poems written during the Coronavirus Outbreak 2020
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Robert Rayner
Ponteland, Newcastle- upon-Tyne, UK
Robert Rayner is a member of
Northumbrian Writers' Group and has enjoyed success in writing
competitions including the NAWG formal poetry category 2017, East Riding
poetry competition 2019 and the Jewel on the Wall flash fiction 2018 and
the Fosseway travel writing competition 2019. His other interests
include Parkrun, Newcastle United , reading, walking and spending time
with family.
WINGS AND A
PRAYER
A
stallholder stacks a crate of pangolins next to the
bats in Wuhan food market. Days later
the customers awake - coughing. It goes
unnoticed. In the
garden this spring morning a small
tortoiseshell butterfly lies dead still
in the shade as if pinned and
glass-cased. Its delicate
wings are stretched in perfect
petalled symmetry - paletted by
translucent orange, black and
yellow hazard spots and tips
ringed by blue crescents. Hours pass –
it waits for the
reach of warming rays. At last
antennae quiver, then a jerky beating of
wings tests the energy store, before the
butterfly rests once more. Bouyed by a
sudden uplift it dances past
daffodils drinking the sun - knows the
course of life is quickly run. And it is
late. At heather's
purple bloom it flits and sips, giddily,
gaudily flutters to deceive a mate. There are no
reports of far-off hurricanes
on the lunchtime news, just the
three - slogan prayer. So we pause
our lives and
patiently forbear - not easy,
let's not pretend. Earth can
convalesce, the
atmosphere repair and we may
dare believe the
chaos will end. Poem written 5th May 2020
LOCKDOWN Each day for
an hour we escape
along the track; edge furrowed
fields birds scour, fill our
pockets with posies. Four seats
apart at the funeral pocketfuls
of memories empty. Like the
poem that slips away - not what I
meant to say. On Thursdays
from living rooms lit by
television glow socially
distanced neighbours emerge; clap for
carers, wave hello. Always in my
pocket a coin and
gel - it's heads
for heaven and tails
for hell. |