Vaccine

It stands at the doors

Unfurling its talons

On benches where love dwelt

At tables where candles used to be lit

On door knobs of domesticity

In places both holy and profane.

It swoops down

On unsuspecting humans

In the warmth of a handshake

In the softness of a hug.

The spectre of Covid 19

A denizen from netherworld

Depressive, deathly, cold

Picking its victims with ease

Stalking the streets

Slinking in hospitals

Camouflaged as air

Unseen, unsmelt, undetected

Knowing no lines

No divisions

No boundaries

No groups.

All are vulnerable

All that is living

Is under its vicious eye.

Yet ;

There is hope

There’s light in the dark

With the coming

Of a vaccine

A vaccine

The healing touch

From human hands that cannot touch

From troubled minds that cannot dream

From human hearts that are selfless

In their service to mankind.

The vaccine

When it comes

Does it mean

That all sorrows will end

And Covid 19 will be powerless then

And the horrors of death will dissipate.

I think not——

Covid is the Irony

Of the darkness within us

That has been let loose

And a prayer is needed

To heal

All the fissures

From where Covids spring

——-Sami Rafiq