Lockdown #13: Social Heroes

Mark’s heroic dying days with no dispensation
He weathered two weeks hotel hibernation
With his Mum eighty-one
His daughter and her sons
Five people, two bedrooms and four generations 

Eight eventful weeks since his dreaded death sentence
He arrived at his cherished Kaikoura resplendence
Such little time left
For his family bereft
On Good Friday that cancer took final vengeance 

Meanwhile a March for Justice for women’s recognition
Their courageous claims and shocking expositions
Such explosive allegations
Rape and discrimination
‘Hear women roar’ were their shrilling dispositions 

Now a damaging deluge of flooding rains
The same first responders as the bush fire flames
River banks broken
The planet has spoken
Recurring reminders of climate change

And to our frontline COVID heroes, unseen and unsung
In hospitals and supermarkets, under the gun
From clinics to cleaning
Carers and quarantining
All devoted to duty since this crisis begun.

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Kevin Holmes • 2nd April 2021