Last Laugh. A poem by Johanna Zomers

The last time I heard the drums
And sirens wail was in
the processions and parades
of Carnival. The Covid Queen
and her consort,
their courtiers, jesters
in feathered masks. wild,
not yet identified,
dancing down the cobbles
beneath the purple sky.

A month later we cheer
the health workers,
from the balconies. The Guarda
sirens shriek their thanks.
Confined, we reap the virulent harvest,
sown innocently.

All that stood between than and now
was the forty days of Lent.

…………

Johanna Antonia Zomers is a former farmer, a playwright with Stone Fence Theatre and writes a weekly column for a Canadian newspaper. Her first novel “When the Light Enters” was published with Pastora de la Vega Press. Her poetry has been published in The Blue Nib, A New Ulster, Poetica and The Eganville Leader. She is at work on her second novel and a collection of essays.