By John Rogers
John Rogers is an English teacher who studied for an MA in Creative Writing at Nottingham Trent University. He has been published in Ink, Sweat and Tears and Allegro.
The poem’s context: Last December, I was listening to a podcast about the winter solstice and how poets had interacted with ‘the shortest day’ and its associated themes. It got me thinking about short days being ‘the longest of waits’ as the number of Covid infections began their sickening climb in the UK and life ground to a halt once again. Now that the lockdown measures are being slowly lifted, I returned to the poem. We journey towards the 21st June and The Summer Solstice Hotel (staycations only!)