Dawdle!

Nikolai Ustinov

Dawdle!

Today's big worry, hurry.

Don't be last, go fast.

Find the room to zoom,

Paddle and skedaddle.

Well ding ding, that's wrong.

Immerse in the reverse.

Pay no heed to speed;

The way to go is slow.

Make your goal a stroll;

Eschew the leap, just creep.

Heed the call to crawl;

Don't play tag, just lag.

On escapes, just traipse;

avoid the fray; delay.

Give the nod to plod;

Shun the scuffle: shuffle.

Don't make tracks, relax.

It's a cinch to inch.

Make your Grail the snail.

Think “status quo” – go slow.

Mae Scanlan

“Make your Grail the snail.”

I like that. (Mae Scanlan is, by the way, one of the unaknowledged masters of poetry. I'm here to tell you that. I have my personal school of thought, and it acknowledges good poetry in dusty forgotten corners.) “Light” poetry, “comic” poetry is the most difficult of all. Tragedy, cynicism, bitterness – these are easy. Humour is hard. Excellent “comic” poetry is a triumph over sorrow and evil, and a ladder out of the pitfalls of human nature, and this is the most difficult art of all. To acknowledge the bad and turn toward the good.

Anyway, enough of my rant. You might be surprised to learn that staying home in this Wuhan Epidemic is not, for those of us who have young children, peaceful, or boring. It is a challenge to personal space, to minute-by-minute flexibility, to role changes, to, well, I can't think of anything it doesn't challenge. So, for someone like me, slowing down is even more of an issue. Patience? Okay! So I am Teacher, Mother, Cleaner, Worker, Lover, Friend – all at once and without cessation?

So help me, a poem like this matters. Words to keep in mind, thoughts to remember in moments of stress. I wouldn't underestimate them.

“Immerse in the reverse.”

“Avoid the fray, delay.”

Mae knew what she was talking about.