Is this unprecedented? Maybe;
But this is not the Somme,
It is not Paschendale.
This is not Idlib.

We are in lockdown, we feel threatened by an unseen enemy;
But this is not Auschwitz,
This is not Sobibór.
This is not Idlib.

Many more families will lose loved ones before their time.
But this is not Dresden 15th February 1945,
This is not Hiroshima.
This is not Idlib.

Ted says to Dougal:
“OK, one last time,
These are small, but the ones out there are far away.”
Yes, this is unprecedented,
We are in lockdown, 
We are threatened by an unseen enemy,
Many more families will lose loved ones before their time.
But this is not Idlib.


Acknowledgements:

Father Ted is showing some plastic toy cows to Dougal.
Father Ted: …OK, one last time. These are small… 
but the ones out there are far away. 
Small… far away…



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A Plague of Poetry where poets from across Scotland
have been reading a sample of their work in this 
time of lockdown. Hosted by Hugh McMillan