Meltdown #13: Social Madness
New South Wales has become a State of despair
The State that boasted the gold standard last year
Should have closed Bondi faster
To avert this disaster
From Sydney to Auckland, it has spread everywhere
Meanwhile Melbourne has passed its two hundredth day
Of repeated lockdowns to keep this virus at bay
We’ve complied and cursed
But we know that the worst
Of a fortnight’s lockdown’s still many weeks away
And our social contracts are stretching and fraying
People rebelling, mental health is decaying
Pub crawling in the streets
Engagement party cheats
They break the rules but it’s us they’re betraying
Dan’s press conference was angry, he was almost in tears
Perhaps because some laughed when he’d fallen down the stairs
He said, just to curse you
I’ll reimpose the curfew
And two more weeks he proclaimed, with his nostrils flared
Then more mystery cases emerged in the dead of night
With a sex worker exposing more contact sites
There’s even some infections
From the party connections
I’ve heard it be said that it serves them right
Relationships in confinement must be taking their toll
Partners for love, but not monotonous rigmarole
From the days of our life
To the haze of our strife
Each lockdown for some is like home grown parole
Working from home works well, but not long Zoom meetings
With background noise, mumbling and muffled speaking
On the screen is not fun
If you’re the only one
Watching everyone else in their board room seatings
COVID’s been a family wrench for my brother
Still stranded in Thailand, his little boy and mother
He has moved all alone
Into their new Perth home
Now a year and a half since they’ve seen one another
Financial support to the public is like a patchwork quilt
A confusing tapestry of relief has been built
No JobKeeper this time
Small business on the line
And the Australian economy in debt to the hilt
We deserve fresh leadership for the new world ahead
Not the bush fire Prime Minister that floundered and fled
We need rejuvenation
With clear communication
With total integrity, not politically inbred
The withdrawal from Afghanistan leaves nothing but pain
Now abandoned to the Taliban, was the war in vein
Two decades of cost
So many lives lost
Defeated Afghans so desperate to climb on the plane
An unconquerable country full of corruption
How quickly it surrendered to Taliban destruction
With their ruthless reputation
Denying girls education
With strict sharia law, beheadings and abduction
Qantas now mandates vaccination for all staff
From stewards to pilots flying the aircraft
Oh the memory of travel
It’s so hard to grapple
Our world now reduced to a five-kilometer graph
Now at this time when Australia’s locked down on its knees
We’re all trying to defeat this defiant disease
We’re a nation of hope
With the will to cope
If we can trust one another and our expertise
So let’s do the masks, vaccines, lockdowns, however bad
For our children to enjoy privileges that we always had
Take for granted never ever
The beauty of being together
Short term sacrifice for those freedoms …. before the world went mad!
Kevin Holmes • 21st August 2021
