A cure came at last.
A leap forward, finally,
a stone that rippled the dark pond.

For what seemed like years
(was it possible time stopped?)
we had held our breath and waited

for the time when we
could let in light – hope – dreams – plans
and, being Man, then build it all

skywards, a castle
made by many human hands,
massive and proud, on the high rocks.

Inside that castle,
we would put all the lost things
swept away by the brutal tide.

The people we’d lost;
grief newly-made each day as
wild waves crashed in the strange silence.

We’d pack it away,
all we had felt about the
unchanging rhythm that rocked us,

our lonely skin stretched
to better contain the loss.
Yet, after all the urgency;

after our children
had received the vital jab;
after we found a moment’s rest,

we were still lost souls,
at sea with only ourselves,
staring in the same old mirror.

We forgot, with time,
why it was we built it, this
castle made by so many hands.