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POETRY IN THE PLAGUE YEAR

Poems written during the Coronavirus Outbreak 2020

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Bill Cotter

Bairnsdale, Victoria, Australia.

 

Bill Cotter has had poetry published in Australia, New Zealand, New Deli in India, England and Wales.

He has won a number of literary awards, including the Melbourne Shakespeare Society's sonnet competition.

 

Two Poems  22nd April 2020 An Almost Ordinary Saturday Morning    19th May 2020 Silence

 

Poem completed on 22nd April 2020

 

AN ALMOST ORDINARY SATURDAY MORNING

 

The village yawns,

Settles into its slow, wake up routine.

Autumn leaves drift and rub across the lawn

And the sun inches out from the trees.

 

Toddlers, already energetic as mini tug boats,

Nudge grandparents along the street.

Two boys, up and about early,

Are at work teasing a passing girl.

A young man reaches up from his wheel chair,

Straining to post a letter.

 

Well dressed magpies are purposefully pursuing worms.

Ragamuffin sparrows are squabbling on a park bench

And a black, leather smooth cat

Slinks out from a corner, stops, looks,

Before slouching off.

 

On the hotel roof,

A satellite dish harvests news of little interest,

Spreads it through the half empty bar

 

And, seated at his post,

The barman mechanically opens the paper,

 

Flicks from the sports page

To something called the Coronavirus,

Scans the headline,

Skips back to news of the cancelled races,

Confines the paper to the rubbish bin

 

And the village continues its slow, wake up routine.

Poem written 19th May 2020

SILENCE

 

There is the silence,

Taut with expectation,

Where lovers gaze through trembling candle light,

 

Where criminals,

Seated in public view,

Watch the slow returning parade of a jury,

 

Where soldiers reach the lip of the trench,

Peer into the scarlet splashed dawn

And pray that the hated command will never come.

 

There is the silence

Of old men

Bent before the descending coffins of their wives,

 

The electric silence

Of children

Opening presents on Christmas Day,

 

The silence, knife sharp,

Where a woman

Sees her x ray marred with condemning spots

 

And where

Partners, pretending indifference,

Wait to hear the results of their coronavirus test.