that darned old virus train

(with apologies to Robert Louis Stevenson)

When dad is sick, he lays abed
with all our pillows at his head
and Thera-Flu beside him lay
to help him sleep all through the day.

And sometimes for an hour or so
he watches that Orange County Choppers show
with different handlebars and grills
and Mikey racing through the hills.

He moves around his sweaty feet
inside his soft red flannel sheets
and calls to mama with a plaintive shout
for ice to quell his inner drought

It feels like forever we've been ill
coughing, aching, dripping, but still,
our health we hope to soon regain
by somehow derailing that darned old virus train