In the Days of Masks and Rubber Gloves

by Dan Delehanty

And did you heed the call
When you went into the hospital, tired each day
One day blurring into the next
With that question buried deep in your mind
So that it was out the way
And you could get to work refusing death
Rejecting what he came to claim

Did you heed the call
You who are charged to protect us
Did you put down your weapon
Pick up a stretcher
Go into that new place
With its swirling micro-verse where danger lay
Did you go in to help, to rescue, to comfort

Did you heed the call
You who were elected
Did you drop the partisan shield without a second thought
Search every minute of every day
For ventilators and essential medical supplies
For answers to track and contain
For money to support those who were blindsided and suffering

Did you heed the call
When you were sick and your children in diapers
And all of you quarantined
Did you reach down deep
Make sure they were well and cared for
While knives carved up your lungs with each cough
As you sang lullabies

Did you heed the call
When your parents fell sick
Care for them despite the risk
Not because you had to but because you wanted to
Listen to their complaints and encourage their recollections
Discover the person in the parent
With the TV volume at one hundred twenty decibels

Did you heed the call
When your business turned upside down
Find a way to supply us
With the ventilators, the masks, the gowns
With food and drink and medicine
Working tirelessly and at great personal cost
Because you knew lives depended on it

Did you heed the call
Yes, of course you did
While in every nation there were some frozen with fear
Others paranoid and panicky
And still others who pretended nothing was wrong
Or the problem already fixed
Saying nothing was happening, all was well

Something was happening
You heeded the call
Walking toward the danger, not from it
And kept on going about the work
The real work
While others played the blame game
You stood fast amidst waves of fever, waves of chills, and sirens

Did you know there are millions
Hundreds of millions, actually billions of souls
Grateful for you
The mass of humanity, still divided, but united
In wishing you well, in wishing all will be well
All will be well
Because you heeded the call

Regretfully, there is no reward for your efforts
No parades, no celebrations, no fireworks would suffice
There is only this truth
Those who heeded the call
That is life well-lived, and noble