So still, so still, still, still
My mother says down the line from Glasgow
As if, from her Care Home window,
She sees the eerie worry of the world; the chill,
The deserted squares, the empty streets,
The half-shut bars, sad theatres,
Packed hospitals, gold-dust ventilators
School kids in lockdown, no exams to meet…
The whole world is going down, she said,
And I’m not going to Hell. Well, still.
We’ll have to take each day, be grateful
Thankful for small mercies, the three crows on the wall.
See the silver linings till we meet again, she said,
Yes, I said, but she couldn’t hear a single thing I said,
Except when I shouted I love you. I love you, precious,
she said. Then the line went dead.
~ Copyright Jackie Kay (Chancellor, University of Salford,
in Manchester)
