A Nurse nurses

As does a mother,

For she’s a mother too

Still the nurse,

She wakes up and sighs,

Who shall I nurse today?

A choice I have is to stay away

Nurse my baby, and pray,

That the pandemic does not stray

Into my home, my life.

As a daughter, as a mother,

 as a wife

The telephone rings

It goes, Tring Tring Tring

I know it’s the distress ping,

From a desperate matron

Whose feet are beginning to sting

I know what she’ll say

Please come over,

Patients are dying, I’m not lying. 

She’s appealing

To the nurse in me.

And she knows I’m crying.

Im dead on my feet,

A sleepless night, a wake up fight

And now a telephone ring

Just as my baby delights.

But it’s over, when

She wails and flails

I rush to her,

I’m naturally besotten

Let those dying wail!

 But wait. I’m a nurse,

A Nurse who nurses.

For us, it’s never over.

Is it a curse?

My mind  is split open

Like the ripped bedsheet

that last night,

I used to wrap that dead meat.

His family, they were distraught,

but saluted me from afar,

Next stop, the  pyre.

I went home, I held her close.

I was stuck in the mire.

I felt dire.

Tring, Tring, Tring

Duty calls, here and away

Which way should  I sway?

If I stay, I’ll be out of pocket,

My baby, she’ll cry

And all I’ll be able to do,

Is to hold her locket,

If I go, I’ll save a life,

But mine?