The Cleaners

By Dot Yeates

Always with a ready and welcome smile.
Perhaps language is a barrier, but not the warmth and consistency of that daily greeting.
I might be new, uncertain in my environment but She in the morning and He in the evening
Are a constant and an essential familiarity in uncertain, troubling times.

They hide their own battles and worries to offer a sanitised and safe area for worker and patient.
They are caught often in the crossfire of anger, frustration and grief but always return to offer accountable normality.
They smile and chat and observe.
I am sure they sense elation or desolation and respond with body language as well as action.
They willingly catch every emotion and turmoil with a strong and willing hands.

There, before we arrive and returning as we leave for the cradle of home.
In between, perhaps another job has been attended and accomplished.
So often that initial, friendly face, ultimately to be honoured and deemed indispensable - surely?

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Written Word ‘Hand’ poems