There’s a beautiful poem outside my window
a shrub two and a half metres tall
with coquettish purple flowers
and a little frost of throats.
There are other colours too
lavender and white
a trinity of colours.
It has a botanical name, of course,
though I much prefer its common name:
Yesterday. Today and Tomorrow.
I’ve written about it before but not like this,
Yesterday was our 215 th day with no community transmissions.
Today we have 20.
Tomorrow?
We watch the News Bulletins, updates from the Chief Medical Officer,
Blooms of anxiety.
Viral blooms.
John Malone 
I love the line “a little frost of throats”!
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I just reread it because it occurred to me that throats link with the virus and I wondered if you had other hidden links in the top bit. You have a trinity of colours and a trinity of times. But somehow the jump from shrub to virus still feels sudden. I wonder if you could smudge the two ideas into each other a bit more? Blend the colours. Overlap the circles. Do you know what I mean? Just a thought.
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thanks for your thoughtful response; the ‘frost of throats’ was the last change I made to the poem. I feel okay about the transition from shrub to virus by the inclusion of the transitional ‘bloom’ which applies to both. I’m putting together a collection of covid poems and this one will probably be the last — though the last is not over yet, I feel 😦
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What a surprising turn! I didn’t expect the ending but I like it!
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endings should always be a surprise even though there’s an inevitability about them; in view of all the ‘bloom’ imagery that had gone before it was for me the only possible ending but hey! I’m glad you like it 🙂
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it is fancy and trying to offer up a bit of beauty and respite from the dark things happening.
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yes it is , Beth; you’ve expressed it well 🙂
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A very clever bit of writing. I enjoyed it a lot!
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thank you; it is probably the last of my Covid poems, enough for a collection, chapbook size 🙂
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