Covid-19 Lockdown: Strubenvale Springs (Free Verse Sonnet) Poem by Gert Strydom

With my mother of 86, half-cripple with me,
that waits in the long line outside Strubenvale Pick n Pay
an employee of Pick n Pay passes angry,
screams deafening with all her might:
"You are waiting here in vain if you are a pensioner! "
I wonder if her message is aimed at my mother?
At the entrance my mother gets a chair out of sympathy.
Quickly we get groceries and when we are finished I am relieved.
It's just a short journey to Strubenvale Pharmacy
but no one is let in without a mask.
There is own safety that goes with all the measures
and it's as if the people very slowly leave that pharmacy.
A Indian lady smiles friendly and brings my mother a mask
and I am happy when she eventually can enter to get her medicine.

[Poet's note: My mother walks with a walking stick. They were only letting in five persons at a time and the same measure was in place at the pharmacy. Strubenvale Pick n Pay had another line at the other side of the entrance in another street for pensioners that draw pension directly from them, with cashiers especially for this purpose.My mother's pension is paid directly into her bank account]