Paul A. Freeman

Abu Dhabi

Paul A. Freeman is the author of Rumours of Ophir, a crime novel which was taught at ‘O’ level in Zimbabwean high schools and has been translated into German.

In addition to having two crime novels, a children’s book, and an 18,000-word narrative poem commercially published, Paul is the author of hundreds of published short stories (of various genres), articles and poems.

Two Poems 29^th March 2020 - COVID-19 -  29th February 2020 - The Beginning

poem completed 29^th March 2020

COVID-19 – 29 March 2020

In latex gloves and suffocating mask,

a shopping cart of groceries I fill;

and once I’ve done that claustrophobic task

I join the step-stone queuing at the till.

At home my children study from afar

their classes, then a chess or Scrabble board

defers a film that features some new star;

we're housebound! We’re not venturing abroad.

Come darkness, sanitation crews go out

to sterilise deserted city roads,

while lawmen on patrol fine those who flout

the curfew and should stay in their abodes.

Each day I hope dawn’s horizontal line

will resurrect the past that once was mine.

Poem completed 29th February 2020

The Beginning

I’m drinking in an all but empty pub;

the punters perch on barstools, sat alone,

aware corona spreads where shoulders rub

and hoping TV news is overblown.

Upon the screen appears a global map,

its centrepiece a crouching, scarlet beast

with tentacles unravelling to trap

unwary far-flung folk on whom to feast.

Japan and South Korea are in its grip,

and Italy, while faraway Brazil

is newly knelt beneath the viral whip,

to stay until the monster’s had its fill.

            This sickness, like Black Death or Spanish flu

            will fade, but first mankind must pay his due.