Today’s poem

MY NEW NORMAL DAY

I’m classed as a key worker, because I drive a bus, Don’t carry many people now because of this virus. The passengers I used to have — the kids and OAPs Are locked down in their houses now, because of this disease. The kids are not allowed in school, they have to learn at home. The OAPs can’t travel now, they have to shop by phone. But I’m still out here every day, though I carry very few A postman, just off night shift, a lad from B&Q. A nurse who doesn’t have a car going on a 12-hour shift, A carer, in since yesterday, and couldn’t get a lift. Picked up a girl at Tesco, been shopping for her mum, They tried to get an online slot, but sadly there were none. She said her mum had symptoms and had to isolate, She had two bags of shopping that she’d leave at the back gate. I still see people here and there, on horses and on bikes, Some walking and some jogging, some look a b **** y sight! They can’t sit in the house all day, they have to exercise With bicycles and sports gear that for years have seen no light. They smile and wave as I drive past, they can’t get on the bus, They miss the banter and the laughs, but with God’s grace they trust That when this lockdown’s over they can get back on and say: ‘Am I too early, driver?’ ‘No darling, not today.’ And when my duty’s over and I finally get home, Put my clothes straight in the washer, disinfect my watch, my phone, Jump into the shower, get rid of any trace Of this coronavirus, you have to, just in case. I wonder was it worth it, going into work today? Risk catching Covid-19, put my family in harm’s way? I could have stayed at home, sat in the garden with my wife, But then that nurse I took to work could not have saved that life.

Cled Owen, Widnes, Cheshire.