By Caroline Lodge
PROMPT—During Covid-19 ...
I don’t like needles!
They tell me this
with an anxious look
and I smile
reassuringly—
No one does.
Australia.
As winter nears,
we prepare for flu season
during the global pandemic.
I am a Nurse.
As we lock down,
isolate and retreat,
the annual flu shot
becomes something.
A defense. An outing.
The first time I’ve left home in weeks!
My heart contracts as I realize
the painful truth in this
remark.
And so I expand time, just a little.
Time to share stories of
how life has changed
in the blink of an eye,
in the flash of a needle.
We focus on what we can do.
We laugh behind our masks
and reach out with our
sanitized hands.
Warmth and humor
infectious.
And then they are gone
and I wipe every surface.
The chair, the table, the pen,
all cleaned ready for the next soul.
The next story.
They trust me to keep them safe,
as far as possible,
when everything
we touch and breathe upon
is a potential threat to life.
No material trace remains,
but their essence,
our connection,
lingers in the air
all day.
Caroline Lodge has been quietly writing poetry since landing in Australia two years ago. She is a Registered Nurse and her poems are inspired by her own ‘small noticings’ on life.