Meltdown #4: Social Emotions
Eighty COVID cases, our future looks bleak
Staying in lockdown for another week
And will it extend
To our long weekend
This new Delta variant’s an airborne freak
We’re told we are now in desperate danger
The new virus spreads easy to a passing stranger
No need for a meeting
Or a fleeting greeting
This Indian strain is a real game changer
Melbourne clinging on like the last autumn leaves
Empty streets, eery silence, our city greaves
We’re just locked down souls
Swimming in a fish bowl
Dim days of the past, our memory retrieves
Feels like more than just a circuit breaker
This fourth lockdown is a real heart shaker
Every sporting facility
Our most liveable city
Knocked down again with a huge haymaker
While other States and countries get on with life
Going about their business with far less strife
It’s our national obsession
With total suppression
That Victoria’s again put under the knife
This week the PM has shifted position
In reaction to so much criticism
He had to consort
To income support
And vaccination with military precision
Went to Coles, still no compulsory QR Code
For customers exposed to the viral load
No scanning enforcement
No entry endorsement
No wonder we are back into lockdown mode
Melbourne’s AFL football in disarray
Matches relocated so the games could play
But if the ball’s in the stand
Leave it where it lands
In case contaminated with Collingwood spray
The Dream Time Footy was moved to the West
An event that Melbourne normally does best
A sporting celebration
Of indigenous participation
A night where their culture is beautifully expressed
Across the ditch are floods on the Canterbury plains
From terrorism, earthquakes, now heavy rains
They’ve dealt with the lot
Then in flies Scott
Rubbing noses with Kiwis on his charm campaign
Meanwhile major decisions on the advice of science
A step change in environmental compliance
To Exxon Mobil, Shell
And to Chevron as well
Landmark climate rulings on the shoulders of giants
Now the COVID lid is off, emotions are bare
Vaccination makes free, marketing scare
It’s all our responsibility
But we need availability
Only eight percent full doses in old-aged care
But vaccination still won’t grant us impunity
While COVID’s still in the global community
Will our borders come down
Can countries really rebound
Unless the whole world can harness herd immunity?
Kevin Holmes • 6th June 2021
