A cappella

On a ward in Llanelli, this morning, an old man sang.

From his thin and fragile frame –

Covered by a now-cavernous dressing gown that hung from his shoulders like catkins,
surrounded by the paraphernalia of what passes for caring
(charts, a call-button, a table with its half-filled jug and cup and box of tissues),
attended by doctors whose eyes, perched above the creases of their masks, flitted impatiently to-and-fro between him and their computer on wheels,
Y Beibl on his bed, as it were a butterfly warming its wings, opened where the psalmist warns of toil and sorrow for those whose lives, after three score years and ten, pass quickly with a sigh,

– there arose a voice that seemed to come from his very soul.

And the ward round stopped.
Did their ears deceive them?

It was a voice that belied his vulnerability
and shattered their perceptions of his decrepitude.

It was clear and articulate, light on its feet, floating unaccompanied, unassisted,
full of confidence and faith.

Those who heard it felt they were looking up at the stars and seeing into the past.

For, this was the voice that had sung the story of his life.
With this voice he had serenaded those he had loved, had lulled his child to sleep, had mourned his ‘dear departed’.
In chapel on Sundays heads would turn as, with this same voice, he praised his God.

Yet today the heads that turned belonged to the doctors, a nurse, a therapist, and two transient medical students
Who, bemused and then captivated, forgot about his constipation and hypotension, his blood count and urine output, his temperature and ‘sats’.

Indeed, they suspended his ‘patienthood’.

And,
listening,
tried to capture these few incongruous moments, as
the old man sang.

And perhaps they went away and wondered how and why this aged man had, with his voice of ages, touched those who, even with gloved hands, would not touch him.

Perhaps they pondered how they, in their turn, might help other patients sing.

Poem contributed by Clive Weston.

https://poetryforthepandemic.wordpress.com/blog/

Photo by Eduard Militaru on Unsplash