A Nurse nurses
As does a mother,
For she’s a mother too
Still the nurse,
She wakes up and sighs,
Who shall I nurse today?
A choice I have is to stay away
Nurse my baby, and pray,
That the pandemic does not stray
Into my home, my life.
As a daughter, as a mother,
as a wife
The telephone rings
It goes, Tring Tring Tring
I know it’s the distress ping,
From a desperate matron
Whose feet are beginning to sting
I know what she’ll say
Please come over,
Patients are dying, I’m not lying.
She’s appealing
To the nurse in me.
And she knows I’m crying.
Im dead on my feet,
A sleepless night, a wake up fight
And now a telephone ring
Just as my baby delights.
But it’s over, when
She wails and flails
I rush to her,
I’m naturally besotten
Let those dying wail!
But wait. I’m a nurse,
A Nurse who nurses.
For us, it’s never over.
Is it a curse?
My mind is split open
Like the ripped bedsheet
that last night,
I used to wrap that dead meat.
His family, they were distraught,
but saluted me from afar,
Next stop, the pyre.
I went home, I held her close.
I was stuck in the mire.
I felt dire.
Tring, Tring, Tring
Duty calls, here and away
Which way should I sway?
If I stay, I’ll be out of pocket,
My baby, she’ll cry
And all I’ll be able to do,
Is to hold her locket,
If I go, I’ll save a life,
But mine?
Photo by Graham Ruttan on Unsplash