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Covid 19 Statement

By: Simon Piesse

About The Poem

As a teacher in one of the boroughs with the highest rates of Covid 19, I wanted my poem to explore the increasing disparity between the unfolding ravages of the Coronavirus and the government’s attempts at communicating how it was in control. The poem expresses a range of emotions: anger, shock, frustration and disappointment. Thank you for reading it.

The Poem

I did not Covid.
I did not shake its hand.
I did not open the gate: they opened it,
Shuffling their wheezing virus
Through dementia’s door.

I did not inexperience the past; I did not foresee the future.
I did not design the system that turned into a trap.

I did not tune into the wavelength of wailing.
I did not underestimate; I did not underreact.

I did not laud them as heroes and cut their pay.
I did not shroud the dead in a pall of platitudes.
I did not doctor the statistics.
I did not erect barriers of blame.

I did not stretcher their dignity off the screen.
I did not mix grief with self-congratulation
Into a farce.

I did not mourn, I did not understand.
I did not make room for remorse.
I did not botch the procurement of salvation.

I did not Covid.

End of Statement.

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