Analysing the poem “Viruses” from the collection “Playing God”

I guess it’s just a pun on ‘run’, my nose runs, because in that poem I talk about viruses being like my sister’s children, and I didn’t have children of my own, but they’re certainly….like my own child, how viruses are annoying, you know they come to your house and they pull out all the pots and pans, and they run. They put marmite all over the walls, and that’s sort of what viruses are like, you know they sort of annoy you and give you a headache, and they swing on that dangly thing at the back of your throat, and you get sore throats and lots of niggly things.

And the last line says, you know it’s about my nephews and nieces coming to visit and causing havoc in the house, and the last line says “No wonder my nose runs”, and it’s a pun on runs, because when you’ve got a virus, often you get a runny nose. But it’s personifying nose, as if my nose is in the house when my nephews and nieces come, and my nose sees them and thinks, “Oh God I’m out of here”, and my nose runs away. Does that make sense? You put that in your exam and they’ve got to give you 100 percent.