An Onion and a Rose - Covid Poem

My sister is a poet and wrote this after having contracted Covid.

An Onion and a Rose
By Adrienne Tinn

I wasn’t going to write at all on Covid.
I wasn’t going to tell about my woes-
The cough, sore throat, the tiredness that hits you.
But oh! I have to talk about my nose.

We all accept that we are born with that appendage,
Be it long or small or fat or thin.
It is a snout of very great importance
To help us breathing out and breathing in.

But no, I hadn’t thought of its importance
Regarding both our sense of smell or taste.
For the latter needs the former to be working
Or any tries for flavour goes to waste.

I lost my sense of taste and smell with Covid.
I could tell when salty, sweet or sour still.
But flavour flew and no amount of trying
Could bring it back. It was a bitter pill.

My lovely seedy bread was soft but tasteless.
Seeds could have been a mass of ants inside –
My soup a thick amorphous mass of liquid,
The fish and meat just lumps I couldn’t abide.

The cheese a chunk of salt that held no flavour,
An apple and a pear could be the same.
Peas and beans and cabbage all were tasteless.
They simply could have borne each other’s name.

I didn’t want to eat. It all seemed pointless.
Bu then! The tang of onion in the air!
Was that a smell? I couldn’t quite believe it.
Beloved onions are you really there?

Both senses came back home – a slow returning –
But oh, appreciation on my part!
The tang, the taste, the scent of all around me.
An onion and a rose will fill my heart.