A Room of My Own: Talk the Talk

Fifty-Eighth Entry, Coronavirus Poetry Diary

To Justin Trudeau who addressed the House of Commons on saving the elderly from coronavirus on April 11, saying, They fought for us all those years ago. And today we fight for them. We will show ourselves to be worthy of this magnificent country they built.

at the briefing

the photogenic PM's mouth

opens and closes ...

a nursing home silhouetted

against the sunset sky

forty more deaths

slides across the bottom

of the screen ...

a nurse's voice falters,

this elder genocide

Added: Fifty-Nineth Entry

gathering dark
she touches her father's face
behind the glass door

FYI: The Globe and Mail April 13 report, "Outbreaks at seniors’ homes linked to almost half of COVID-19 deaths in Canada, Theresa tam says."Toronto Star May 7 report, "82% of Canada’s COVID-19 deaths have been in long-term care, new data reveals." And for more information, see Russell Richer's National Observer May 15 opinion piece, COVID-19: Chronology of the Long-Term Care Tragedy.