Staying Afloat

by LisaMay

Epilogue:
The following poem is my final contribution to this month-long undertaking for National Poetry Writing Month. I have posted a poem a day during April, each day giving a glimpse of my life here in southern New Zealand.

It coincided with a nation-wide Level 4 lockdown due to Covid-19, with just the past 3 days eased somewhat to Level 3, allowing more businesses to operate and a slight relaxation of personal liberty. Social distancing is still expected of us.

In global terms, New Zealand has handled the pandemic with a degree of success, no doubt aided by being a nation with a small population, governed by firm and fair leadership, having no land borders with other countries, and having cooperative residents. As of today, the death toll is 19 people lost and mourned.

New Zealand has a high dependence on income from tourism and hospitality, from foreign students in our education system, and from many other businesses now affected by international trade and travel. Our economy is wrecked for the foreseeable future, but Kiwis are resilient, resourcefully creative, and caring. In our Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s words, “We are a team of 5 million”. I think she makes a terrific team leader. I am proud to live in New Zealand.

Writing these poems during April has been an interesting exercise in self-reflection, observations, and insights. Thank you for reading my poems. I appreciate your feedback. I offer full respect to the other poets who committed to this challenge of a month of writing.

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We’re in the same boat

as we navigate our lives.

Try to stay afloat.

•

We’ll plot a new course

as we bail our leaky boat,

lives changed forever.

•

Calm with good advice:

optimistic confidence

we’re not all at sea.

•

Now, anchors away,

we'll take our bold, new bearings

to steer through the storm.

•

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Author's Note:
This pandemic will be affecting people in every country. We're all in it together on a global scale; let's hope cooperative solutions can be found for health, trade, business, employment, the environment, and 'people first' government.

(Now that the infection numbers are down and we have a bit more freedom here, the really scary thing is that people will get trampled to death in the mad frenzy to get takeaways! Honestly, you'd think some people were going to die of starvation without an immediate fix of McDonalds or KFC.)

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Daily 5-7-5 simplicities for April Na-Po-Wri-Mo

A chapter in the book A Window On My World

Staying Afloat

by LisaMay

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