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

Bike and scooter registration and engraving comes to Southbank
