Christmas 2020

Christmas 2020
What a laugh
Try living with
An Arctic draught
Slicing through the house
Like a cold steel knife
Enough to freeze
To death
A hibernating mouse

Christmas 2020
What a laugh
Try sitting in
A living room
Frozen to the bone
No money to feed the children
No money to feed the meter
No money to phone a friend
Imprisoned by a virus
Deadly silent and unseen
Lingering on hands
Lingering on surfaces
Lingering in places
Wherever you go
Wherever you’ve been

In shops and supermarkets
In doctors’ surgeries
In care homes for the elderly
In schools and nurseries
In high streets
In front gardens
On buses
On trains
On aeroplanes
In offices and workplaces
The virus goes about its business
Deadly silent and unseen

Christmas 2020
What a laugh
Fearing for your safety
On the top floor
Of a high-rise block of flats
Like Grenfell Tower
On furlough if you’re lucky
Otherwise jobless
And penniless

No money to feed the children
No money to feed the meter
No money to phone a friend
Imprisoned by a virus
Deadly silent and unseen
Lingering on hands
Lingering on surfaces
Lingering in places
Wherever you go
Wherever you’ve been

Christmas 2020
Hard to laugh
As you look into
Your children’s expectant eyes
Knowing in your veins
Knowing in your bowels
Knowing in your brain
You don’t have the money
To pay for Christmas dinner
Let alone the Christmas presents
About which they’ve fantasised

@ rowland paul hill
Christmas 2020