Two Poems

By Cheryl Mann

I Did Not Mourn my Son’s Wedding

Faceless angel of war

A beast conquers the world,
And crowns himself king.
He robs the pockets and hearts of many,
Feeling no remorse.
A tsunami of panic and death,
Few are unscathed by the ascent
Of this mercurial monster.

I am a faceless angel of war,
I cloak myself in invisibility
As I challenge the phantom king alone.
My weapons are slight.
Only a vial of light in my pocket.
As my whispered war cry echoes,
I pray the shadow does not follow.

Fear knows me by name.
Will this ethereal fiend plague my journey?
Does he chase me home?
My wonderings haunt me.
Does he ride with me
Into the homes of delicate souls,
Waiting to gobble them up like delicacies?

Resolutely I bear the grief of mankind.
My wards know not my countenance,
I am a faceless angel of war.
My brethren are knighted,
Humbly we receive our swords.
The guard of honor is sent back to battle.
A new weapon girds my arsenal.

Smiths work without cease,
Forging swords to slay the beast.
But the need is vast.
Can he be banished?
I now also wonder,
Will my shield hold?
My fellow knights tire and the armory is lacking.

Cheryl Mann is a nurse from Iowa.  Like most nurses, she lives with the fear of bringing Covid home to her family and struggles with the loss of personal connection during the pandemic. Her daughter has inspired her to pour the resulting swirl of emotions out onto paper.  She is thrilled to be published for the first time in Poetry and Covid.

I am a mother and a nurse. My son is in medical school. COVID-19 is a constant and unwelcome guest in both of our worlds. My son has already survived COVID-19 once. This week he got married. I was able to attend, but it was not the wedding either of us had pictured in our minds. It was, however, a little slice of wonderful in a world turned upside down.

Faceless Angel of War was inspired after a patient commented that he did not know what I looked like. It was rather shocking because I had been caring for him for six months. I proceeded to spend the next hour just talking about life and sharing pictures from my phone. While it may not have been the most efficient use of my time that day, I called it a gift, from one human to another.