Sonnet-19
When I consider how I’ll pay my rent,
stuck all my days indoors and in my pride
without a talent now identified
as being essential by the government
to serve therewith my people, and resent
my uselessness, while others turn the tide;
“Would it really be so bad to go outside?”
I fondly ask. But patients, to prevent
That murmur, soon reply, “We must succeed
in slowing infections. Let the NHS
workers treat us; they serve us best. This state
is dormant: thousands at its bidding need
to homeschool, tend the garden, get some rest;
they also serve who only stand and wait.”
(with apologies to John Milton)
Tony Williams lives in rural Northumberland. His most recent book is Hawthorn City (Salt).
new boots and pantisocracies 
Splendid,
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