Here Comes the Sun
Hurricane screens
over office windows
block out the light
in the COVID unit
In here
it feels like night until at least 9 am
Fitting for a building that has housed so much death
these last two years
Sealed off from an outside world
that desires to move on
and declare a post-pandemic victory
Being in that room
for endless hours
I stopped noticing
I’d been left with only dull fluorescent overheads
Caught up in the crisis before me
I didn’t notice the light leaving
until all I could see was the darkness
of another shift before me
When the first wave hit
hospitals in New York played “Here Comes the Sun”
each time a COVID patient went home
Back then the sun felt so far away
But the unit is emptied of COVID patients
my mood significantly lighter after a Saturday on the river walk
I can start to see a way forward,
stepping into the light
