Human Touch

Working in these unprecedented times as a funeral celebrant, like most people, I’m changing work practices, offering video/telephone family meetings, organising contingency cover just in case, adapting to new rules while trying to stay healthy.  But what I find most difficult is not shaking hands with a grieving family who are reaching out to thank me – it’s horrible and unnatural.  Stay safe everyone, hope it’s over very soon.

Human Touch (Coronavirus 2020)

The first human language is touch
instinctive
automatic
second nature
touch comes before sight
before speech
skin on skin
begins each individual journey

In life, in death,
in times of great despair, touch is there
we reach out, we grasp hold
sustained
soothed by human contact
we respond to those in need
hand on hand
heeding their pain

But when touch declares war
when touch becomes the enemy
when touch brings the biggest global threat the world has known
our lives are turned around, thrown upside down
postponed, cancelled indefinitely

We retreat and seek
a different kind of empathy with our fellow-man
find new ways to care
to just be there
virtually communicating a means of healing
technically alleviating anxious feelings
of intense sorrow
heart on heart
until tomorrow

When the world will re-open
and invite us back to living
when the sun will shine
and mankind will be forgiving
when we will appreciate all that we ever had
and all we ever needed to survive

When tears dry and smiles grow
and the power of human touch
is restored in all its glory
skin on skin
hand on hand
heart on heart
the first human language is touch