The week we changed. A poem by Sacha Hutchinson

Wake with numb weight

when eyes open remember

look over measureless ocean.

News of pestilence

across the far seas

swept closer.

Long for

when death was

nowhere.

Hand wash

don’t face touch

treat the sick.

not the worried

To separate

but not to die alone.

Walk past cows that

chew and keep chewing

ignorant of epidemic curves

and case reproduction numbers.

Sit with skylarks

singing in perfect blue

stay strong and think

children’s children’s children .

Trust the earth

to be considerate.

……………….

Sacha Hutchinson is an eye doctor working in Galway from Dublin, she has a BA in fine art. She paints and illustrates. She recently started writing poetry, attends a weekly poetry class and has read at the Over The Edge open reading. Her poetry has appeared in Ropes 2018, in the 2018 spring edition of Skylight 47 and the autumn edition of Curlew. She was shortlisted for Poetry for Patients 2018 and 2019. She was longlisted for Over the Edge New Writer of the Year 2018 and shortlisted in 2019.