Meltdown #8: Social Favours
Australia is waking to a new Delta dawn
Across two largest States this variant has spawned
A State of Origin showdown
The fifth time we close down
In this never-ending game, we’re merely a pawn
In the rear-view mirror, a car crash of cases
Wreckage and chaos for contact tracers
Sydney’s lockdown was token
Many shops were still open
Disobedience and dissidents travelling places
Like the infectious fools in a furniture truck
Drove from Sydney to Melbourne, running amuck
Lied to the tracing team
About where they had been
Déjà vu for Victorians, locked down on our luck
Our Treasurer’s favours and double standards
State Liberal leaders, he protects and panders
Its Premier not blamed
Yet Melbourne he has shamed
Against his home State, he slams and slanders
But why is hotel quarantine still in large towns
Endangering businesses and shops all around
Major density centres
Delta easily enters
A billion dollars a week to close cities down
Despite the supply of Pfizer firmly frozen
‘Arm yourself’ becomes the band aid slogan
Patched up marketing
Given up targeting
A failure to plan is a plan to be broken
We deserve to have trust in the information
That clearly explains the risk equation
What’s the best injection
To best avoid infection
Each day it’s more pantomime than vaccination
Italy beat England in the football final
And in the Tour de France, a crash that went viral
But a win for Ash Barty
A Wimbledon party
Sport makes the world turn, parochial and primal
English football is sadly not ‘coming home’
Instead the trophy is heading to Rome
English sorrow
Like no tomorrow
Dreams of a desperate nation were overthrown
Coming soon, the world’s greatest sporting endeavour
The COVID Games, the most precarious ever
Our Olympians of Tokyo
Should they stay home, or should they go
Delayed by a year, so if not now, never
My brother hasn’t seen his family since March last year
Mama and son in Thailand, while he’s down here
They’re approved to immigrate
But for planes they must wait
Papa misses his boy that he loves so dear
Flights are reserved for the rich and famous
And for those in sport or with business waivers
But this family of three
Separated by sea
Living so long apart, yet they get no favours
Sometimes I think COVID is just viral amnesia
Ignoring neighbours like Thailand and Indonesia
In our self-obsessed world
Their contagions unfurled
Our minds are blind to Asia and friends in Polynesia
My work colleague went to this week’s rugby test match
Where the Wallabies lost and Delta dispatched
He had to get tested
Thankfully negative
But we fear a large outbreak is about to be hatched
So Scott please grab the hose and be straight with us
You dodge, you deceive, you aggravate us
Did you order the Pfizer?
We’re still none the wiser
Can you do us all a favour …. just vaccinate us
Kevin Holmes • 17th July 2021
