Meltdown #19: Social Health
While still smarting from a winter of discontent
Full vaccination rates now nudge fifty percent
But the gift of normality
Still a distant reality
When we’re finally free, it’ll be heaven sent
We toast to the health of the Melbourne football team
A thrilling Grand Final until the Bulldogs were creamed
But home parties last weekend
Have thrown us down the deep end
COVID cases soaring to the highest ever seen
Our doctors and nurses are working round the clock
In face shields, masks and full medical smocks
Ambulance crews
Waiting in queues
For the sake of our health, they put their lives on the block
Our health system’s like an elastic band
Stretched to its limit with fraying strands
Ten thousand active cases
As Victoria braces
Beyond breaking point for beds and medical hands
We must get vaccines out to those with vulnerabilities
Indigenous, elderly and groups with disabilities
Give them a chance to be dosed
Until then we should stay closed
For the health of all people with susceptibilities
The world’s longest lockdown and the Royal Melbourne Show
Is cancelled for the second year in a row
But with tennis and golf back
Those balls will be so whacked
And fifteen precious kilometres, we’re now allowed to go
This one-in-a-century virus, silently stalking
Caught the whole-wide-world napping, barely sleep walking
It crept up with stealth
Destroying our health
Like drowning on dry land, I‘ve heard people talking
But as vaccine rates rise, support payments will taper
Financial lifelines will soon turn to vapour
When they turn off the taps
Businesses will collapse
Pulling the rug too soon could be a Job Breaker
And the health risk for climate has never been higher
Australia’s still an environmental pariah
Dinosaurally diametric
The same boring old rhetoric
Heading to Glasgow COP summit, as a shameful outlier
Scott’s more worried about his political health
Is climate change still on the too-hard shelf
Without net zero in his satchel
And commitments substantial
He may weasel out of going to Glasgow himself
My Kiwi friend’s fighting to keep cancer at bay
Enduring radiation therapy each day
But he’s in very good hands
With a tight family clan
And two daughters made a visit from the UK
On arrival they first did NZ quarantine
Before Mum, Dad and younger sister could be seen
Then when they flew back
One daughter was sacked
And the other one caught dreaded COVID-19!
From the wonderful reunion with one another
To her London sick bed, she fought to recover
Thirty-two and all vaxxed
Yet COVID still attached
Adding more anxiety for father and mother
I’ve been friends with this couple for most of my life
Best man back when they became husband and wife
The years have flown by
Now’s no time to die
Such a positive bond as they stare down their strife
So as we reflect on the health of country and friends
Will we see them soon, vaccination all depends
Give us all a fair go
Just get your shots Bro
Let’s get back to living …. we’re at our withering wits’ end!
Kevin Holmes • 1st October 2021
