You can check out a video of the author reading this poem over on the Unchained Media Scotland Facebook Page by clicking here.
It’s unknown exactly what brought it
Or what it is makes it so fierce
Why it has spread through the whole, wide world
Bringing heartache, sorrow and tears
It’s unknown when you might catch it
On the bus, in a shop, from a sneeze
It’s making us wary of everyone
And objects like glasses and keys
It’s unknown when schools will reopen
And businesses, restaurants and pubs
We don’t know when we can see others again
Or watch sports on tv or at clubs
It’s unknown how long we’ll live this way
We don’t know when it might end
We speculate whether it’s weeks or months
Til the world will be on the mend
It’s unknown how we should be feeling
Should we live in dread and fear
Worried and anxious for ourselves
And for everything we hold dear?
It’s unknown if we are carriers
If we’ll get it, have had it, or not
But let’s keep ourselves safe, and always be kind
Because right now, it’s all that we’ve got.
About the Author
I was born in Dundee but emigrated to South Africa in my childhood. I’d have to say my upbringing there had a lot of input into my views on how inequalities need to be set right now. I always had a passion for writing but never did anything about it until I did an Open University degree (while working and being a single parent). I wrote a lot of poetry at that time as well as some short stories and plays. A few poems were featured in anthologies and I had some success in a local competition with another. My poems were fuelled by sadness or hurt and when life got happier and I met someone and got married the need to write kind of hibernated. Until COVID came along. I work for the NHS, I am part of my health board’s headquarters in the Chief executive’s department and had the both frightening and fascinating privilege of being privy to all the decisions being made and ways the board was handling the insane situation we found ourselves in. So I wrote, and wrote and wrote. I’ve now written 7 lockdown poems (plus another one written tonight). These led to a few more commissioned poems for funerals, businesses and family. It’s been a tough time and I feel pretty emotional much of the time so it was a good way to vent that. I’m amazed with how well they’ve done and very pleased people find them as touching as I do when I write them.
Off the Record 