DAY 12 – Aug 14
sadness rolling in
it can’t be helped
stiff price we pay
for keeping out of
human reach
Nina Simone wails in my head
‘have we lost the touch
that means so much?’
and we tough it out
we Vics
on every other day
we get on with it
crack hardy
rocking grim determination
only long hard winters
can inure
not for nothing do we dress in black
a certain lack
of sunny beach
that makes for
searing comedy
café sophistry
and music, sweet music
we will pay to
go and hear
as if our lives depended on it
which they do
without it
and the books and art
we pump out
by the score
we are nothing
just like Winston Churchill asked
(allegedly)
‘without the arts
what are we fighting for?’
and it is a fight
this curfew
grim battle to the death
an innings to the stumps
so there will be sadness
dark days in the dumps
and many more to come
I take this day
and ball it up
and bin it
with a sigh
and walk towards
the gladness.
See also poems read out loud at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9uLwxslE_VQ-fu-Dw6gdIA/playlists
Also https://www.amazon.com.au/Day-At-Time-Rhyme/dp/0648083861/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=A+Day+At+A+Time+In+Rhyme+Jane+Clifton&qid=1572053238&sr=8-1