Hush, hush

The North Sea, Angus

One of the things that struck me reading about Covid-19 in the early phases was how relatives who couldn't visit loved ones were sending messages to be read aloud to them (or were reading messages aloud to them via phones, tablets etc.). Many mentioned sending or reading poems, in particular, and I have been wondering (since then) what poem I would send to someone in this kind of situation or what poem I might want to be read aloud to me. I haven't come up with an answer but I have come up with a poem (which is partly inspired by someone* I know who has been ill for some time, not with Covid-19, and who has the biggest and best of hearts). 

In a whisper

Hush, hush, sweet one,

Hear my sound at your side.

Your breath’s hard won,

Still your heart’s open wide.

Like the best kind of pet,

On your bed, here I lie,

Here to soak up some pain,

And to never ask why.

We can dream where we've been,

Let the long slideshow play,

Fattest suns, loudest laughs,

All our lives in one day.

As we sleep, you and I,

Let this moment survive,

We are here, flesh to flesh,

This is us, love alive.

RF 2020

*July 2022: the someone I was writing about here was Fi Munro (and her husband Ewan). Fi died in July 2020, not long after I posted this. She wrote books and blog posts and all kinds of things – she was quite a powerhouse. Some of her online content is unavailable just now but her Instagram is still working here and you can read an article about her cancer campaigning here.