I rise today

 I rise today

I rise today

To the music of Lyric FM

Banished from today

Sky News and the relentless roll

Of bad news from around the world. 

Tired I am 

Of chasing bad news on my phone 

Doomscroling as I wander

Down the pages

And paragraphs that have no end. 

There is another life 

Beyond the echo, beyond the wall

In the world of music

Often without the words

All the better for the soul. 

A windy night gives way

To a rugged dawn

A present from the month of March

Who doesn’t know or doesn’t care

Today’s the day one year on

When we joined the world 

By retreating to our rooms

To stay safely in domestic wombs

While war was waged in hospital wards

And hundreds died in old folks homes. 

A terrible plague was born 

Fathered by skiers from resorts

Spread by golf and funerals

Innocent mistakes with higher stakes 

Than most conflicts or wars. 

Here we sit

The thirteenth of March

Spared by the enemy waiting patiently 

For reinforcements to arrive

Before declaring victory. 

So it’s back to music

I return and to poetry to salve

The soul and protect my sanity 

Hold onto dreams that deliver

A future world of touch and feel.