The Telling

When all humanity across the earth trembles beneath fear's quilt,
When death's stark shadow stalks and strikes at every home,
When thick leisure clings to couples' restless hands,
Just then, those police forces you called 'brutes,'
Have come to stand beside you, stepped into the streets
To save you today. You understand cash transactions well enough—
Now perhaps learn to reckon debts as well!

To keep us free from worry,
They thrust themselves into anxiety's endless current,
Keeping us safe at home while they remain
Forever far from hearth and courtyard!
While we ride time's shoulders in idle passage,
Theirs are lives crushed under work's weight,
Their families haunted moment by moment with fear's pursuit.

When I gather my little doll-child indoors with tenderness,
Wrap him in affection, the whole household bubbling with play,
Sweet time passing in leisure, I see then
That our lives rest in the hands of those we called 'butchers.'
While we buy and sell time in our home's breeze,
For them day and night the hospital becomes home.

They fling challenges at death's messenger—Busy now, come back later!
In moments when no one comes close, no one cares,
When loved ones retreat, when friends and family won't approach,
Then those same butchers come to the bedside with compassion,
Saying with a smile, 'Are you feeling a little better than before?'

Those who today took life in their hands to save us—
How many excuses we found, with reason or without,
All these years to keep them in contempt, in the hatred of our gaze...
Today the nation's banner, the people's consciousness rests in their hands.
In this dark time,
To their noble hearts I offer all the love this world holds!