Rudolf Gaiseb 

The retrenchment fosters a great deal of resentment.

Every day, there is a loss of an element.

Working hard to become eminent.

As patients die at the hands of treatment.

I know, dear.

It’s not clear.

Every eye is full of fear.

People ask: ‘Why couldn’t we hear it from a seer?’

But hey! Check up on your peer.

I hope they can see and hear.

On every page.

The message becomes savage.

People of every age.

Locked down, like in a cage.

All for their own sake.

A space in every line.

A Covid case before you’re fine.

As the nurse checks my temperature, chills run down my spine. 

I hope it’s not in her hands or mine.

Like a teen,

I’m stuck in quarantine.

I try to stay clean.

Tossing tissues into the bin.

That is how I have been.

This sickness.

I heard it could beat it with fitness.

So, even I started lifting weights.

Yearning to get rid of the weakness.

Behind a window.

A child longs to fly a kite.

In hospital, patients desperately fight.

Doctors treat with all their might.

The situation is really tight.

I hope for an hour.

Everyone will pause, and focus on the tower.

There is a power.

Awake every hour.

The prayer starts with ‘Our’.