Gobsmacked and shocked (Poems)
Is this really happening?
Are the video clips on the TV real news?
The people of the world are being attacked by a deadly virus
That is spreading right across nations like a bushfire
No-one knows how to extinguish its flame!
Governments are scrambling to provide intensive care beds
People suddenly breath in invisible molecules of destruction
That rapidly attacks the respiratory system to crowd life out of the chest
Health systems scramble over-burdened as demand for specialist care grows
Daily new figures for each country declare the number tested positive
Countries close their borders and aircraft are grounded
Tourism grinds to a halt
No one can go in or out and trapped travellers are quarantined
The virus spreads at an exponential rate never seen in our lifetime
Social distancing and lockdown turn streets into people-less places
News cameras show cityscapes devoid of life with not a person in sight
Nations declare war on this ‘little devil’ virus
Places of noise and laughter where people congregate are shut down
Hotels, nightclubs, gyms, cafés, restaurants and churches ordered closed
Round One Measures are put in place to do battle
People are told to stay at home and cancel holidays
Go out only to do what is necessary to live
Buying food and going to work, if they still have a job, as businesses close
The voice of the Prime Minister interrupts TV programs to announce rescue packages
Funding to provide support for people and businesses to survive this sudden interruption
Set to last for six months or even much longer
Scientists across the globe mobilise a search for the code to smash this virus
To bring back peace, sanity and the hope of some form of return normality
Though not all will be with us because of this calamity
There will be gaps in families taken by this spread of death
Lives will not be the same
Economies will have been severely battered to scaffold survival
Industries will need to be rebuilt as well as lives
The hardest hit will be the aged and the immune compromised who are most vulnerable.
2020 will be remembered in the same way as the great plagues of previous dark ages in history
But the world will go on
If wisdom has increased
Humanity will be changed by this event and be equipped to cope next time
With the crises’ that challenge the survival of humanity.
Hopefully, people will have a renewed culture of supporting one another and of working together,
And the economic system renovated into a more secure network
Driven by caring for people, in contrast to the capitalistic driven system, to make more and more profit without considering the vulnerability of people.
Ideally the great divide between the very rich and the very poor will be reduced
and humanity will have a brighter future where all can feel secure
and have a reasonable standard of living.
People are planning, working and praying for victory over this evil
that love and kindness may again be shared
in a new world without the dangers and conflicts of the past!
Neil P. Schiller
23.03.20
