The February Dead

May 21

By Aileen Ballantyne

(Nurses’ deaths from Covid, February 2021)

Among the February dead, they name you:

Herminio Abalos,
nurse across care homes,
Dundee, Scotland.

Your name: Herminio,
means soldier.
Tonderai Dzingai, ward manager,
Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health, NHS Trust. Tonderai is ‘may we remember.’
Ameta Rooplal, respiratory nurse,
Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospital NHS Trust. Ameta translates to infinity:
the world began with such hands,
calming hands,

hands that hold the comb,
hold her hair back,
hold the bowl,

hands that hold her close,
no-one alone,

hands that pick up the phone
tell us it’s time:
tell us to come,

hands that hold the i-Pad,
hands behind glass,

hands that steady us,
hands that want us to hold
the one we loved most,

but keep us remote,
to save us from harm,

hands: taking the place
of our hands,

hands gloved in blue,
hands rubbed red-raw:
hands that carry us,
hands that clean the wound,
staunch the flow.

Hands that can’t rest

lest the world break
if they stop.

Written Word ‘Soul’ poems

Featured