Dear Editor ...

I attach a poem (in the form of limerick) to celebrate our two years of COVID in Victoria. Judging by the response from a variety of people, it’s likely your readers would enjoy this take on recent events ...  

When COVID came knocking last year

We cower’d in legitimate fear

There WAS no injection To stem the infection

We chose to stay home in the clear.  

The Premier stepped up and said,

“Right! It’s time for one hell of a fight.

With strictest insistence

On handwash and distance

The end of the tunnel’s in sight.”  

So all would be well, we assumed.

We bing-watched and drank and self-groomed

And checked out reportage

Of loo paper shortage

And Clicked and Collected and Zoomed ...  

A National Cabinet met

And agreed to take all they could get

Of job-support offers

From Treasury coffers —

It seemed like a pretty good bet.  

Indeed the plan worked like a charm

To save us (while waiting) frowm harm.

But States argued borders

While Feds bungled orders

To book enough shots in the arm.  

Lest anyone be disabused

They kept us completely bemused:

“Don’t think of the menace —

Think footy and tennis

And watch on the TV while boozed.”  

When early suppression seemed real

We soon made the best of the deal

And counting the clock down

We broke out of lockdown

To savour the time we could steal.  

Then COVID spoilt Christmas for those

Who didn’t know borders would close

From this day to that

At the drop of a hat —

It wasn’t the summer they chose.  

In subsequent lockdowns aplenty

Both amateurs and cognoscenti,

Could see Twenty-One

Had merely begun

A groundhog-style, fresh 2020.  

Very late, at last picking up speed

We now have the vaccines we need.

From grannies to bubs

At the doc’s or State hubs

We willingly join the stampede.  

There’s Pfizer, Moderna and such

And Astra Z? (Not quite so much).

“Is it good, is it bad?

Is it fit to be had?”

But all are just fine in a clutch.  

Grand Final, some demos, and quakes

Are seemingly all that it takes

(Or maybe some locusts?)

To get the State focused

On opening up for our sakes.   A

nother trial waits in the wings

As we know, being woke to these things:

COVID still lurks

At the heart of the works

Like the roundabout goes with the swings.  

Before being through with these verses

It’s wise to say, “Stay out of hearses!”

Of ICU too — And this with a view

To sparing the wonderful nurses.  

Cheers and thanks, Deborah Conyngham