Little Bo Peep
has lost her youth
her best years
are confounded.
She’s all alone
stuck in at home
and can’t get out
to party.
How will love come
to one so alone?
She doesn’t know
where she’ll find it.
She’ll sit on her own
Call friends on her phone
But all of her dreams
are thwarted.
She’ll leave them alone
till better days come
and the bad days
will be well behind her.
The U.K. has experienced the highest number of Coronavirus deaths in Europe and a quarter of known coronavirus deaths in Great Britain have happened in care homes but there is still a view we should ‘back Boris’ and not ask awkward questions. It reminded me of Kipling’s poem ‘the Smugglers’ with its refrain, ‘Watch the wall my darling while the gentlemen go by.’
IF you wake at midnight, a’ sweating at the count
Please don’t blame our leader, should the death toll mount,
Them that don’t ask questions won’t be told a lie.
Back to sleep my darling, while the old folk die.
Don’t go asking questions,
Best stay in the dark –
There are daily briefings, questions no one asks
Clapping for the nurses; rules for you and I,
Bite your tongue my darling while the old folk die!
If you make comparisons and you chance to find
Evidence that’s mounting up and preying on your mind,
Don’t you shout to come and look, or use it for your play.
Carefully place a lid on it so all’s forgot next day.
If you see the stable-door setting open wide;
If you see an argument crudely brushed aside
If you see the minister’s cut about and tore;
If the questions are too tough – don’t you ask no more !
If you meet apologists sharing what they’ve read,
You be careful what you say, and mindful what is said.
If they call you ” pretty maid,” and chuck you ‘neath the chin,
Better you just back away and think of giving in.
If you see an empty bench – division lobbies dark –
If parliament behaves itself and house-dogs will not bark.
Sir Keir is there, but none to hear, so see how dumb they lie
They don’t fret or holler out when the old folks die !
‘If you do as you’ve been told, ‘maybe there’s a chance,
They will get you back to work, or picking fruit perchance,
You’ll get to see a relative or play a game of golf
They’ll let you have a cleaner in; but keep your granny out.
Five and twenty briefings,
Still we’re in the dark –
Swerve the awkward questions, silence awkward folk
Them that don’t ask questions isn’t told a lie –
Bite your tongue my darling while the old folks die!
Seems we found an answer
To that virus thing
It wasn’t like the medics knew
What do experts bring?
Bleach and disinfectant
Ought to do the trick
Flush the sickness out of you
Hit it with a stick.
Ask a snake oil doctor
If you want the truth
No use over thinking
Answers on the hoof.
Have you thought of sunlight?
Fresh air, open doors?
What’s the use of doctors
When you’re in the wars?
Inject with disinfectant
Stick it in your arm
Forget the manufacturers
What could be the harm?
You can’t think I was serious?
Who’d be such a fool?
That’d be ridiculous
Fake news, over-ruled.
Breaking news, announcement
English Premier League
The season is resuming
But things will have to change.
They’ll bring in social distancing
You can’t go near opponents.
If you dare to come too close
They’ll fall and get a foul
There’s penalties for sneezes
And if you dare to cough
The ref will have a red card out
You’ll have to go straight off!
You can not pass the half way line
For inessential travel.
If you’re near the other goal
You’ll have to wear a mask.
All spectators will be banned
They’ll have to watch from home
Chanting at their own four walls
‘You’ll never walk alone.’
Lockdown must be hard if you are in a flat with no outside space but sitting in my garden it feels like there are worse places to be. Most people in UK accept the lockdown, even if they are getting bored with it and, if anything , are critical of the government for not introducing it earlier. But it’s not the same everywhere I gather….
Poor Adam’s locked in Eden
It really isn’t fair.
A whole world to explore out there
It’s all too much to bear.
Eve just wants to go shopping
The snake says it’s ok.
‘Surely it’s not so bad honey?’
What’s a guy to say?
Sure God know’s what’s best for us
To be safe and sound at home
But he didn’t make us wise enough
To know we shouldn’t roam.
We can’t cope with peace and quiet
The birdsong gets us down
We don’t care what you say’s out there
Folk just want to hit town.
We don’t care about the virus
Or who might get it off us.
We don’t care about the other folk
We just care about us.
God made paradise perfect
But then gave us free will.
Creation breathes a sigh of relief
That we’re in lockdown still.
You have to let us out God
We’ve got so much to do
The world will be a total mess
Creation’s poking through.
We tell them that they’re heroes;
Stand outside and clap
But are they meant to die for us?
Is it enough to clap?
We praise their dedication,
Utterly selfless care
But where is that equipment?
Why is it not there?
Medics are not soldiers
They don’t sign up for war
They are not meant to die for us
Just to give us care.
We praise our gallant medics
But it’s plain for all to see
They need the right protection
Where’s the PPE?
Round and round the garden
Goes good Captain Moore
Round and round the garden
Then a few times more.
Round and round the garden
With his zimmer frame
Ninety nine, he’s near a ton
But he’s off again!
Round and round the garden
Not a man to quit
Wants to thank the NHS
Wants to do his bit.
Round and round the garden
Raise a thousand pounds
‘Stay at home’, we can’t go out
Round and round the grounds.
One step, two step, are we nearly there?
Seems he’s raised a good deal more
Off we go again.
Round and round the garden
Raise a million pounds
Breaking news – it’s twenty now!
Round and round he goes.
On, on goes lockdown
Will it never end
Cheer us up good Captain Moore
Or we’ll go round the bend.
You can’t keep down old soldiers
Men who fought a war
Round and round the garden
Will you do some more?
NHS our heroes.
You’re a hero too
Round and round the garden
On and on you go.
99 year old war veteran Capt. Tom Moore has raised more than £21m for NHS charities by completing 100 laps of his garden. He has captured the imagination of the British public and has vowed to go on walking although his original £1,000 target has been exceeded beyond anyone’s imagination.
If you would like to donate to the campaign, you can do so by visiting Captain Moore’s official Just Giving pageonline.
Christ can’t come this Easter
They’ve locked him in the tomb
Hope may spring eternal
But don’t come out your room.
The church is locked this Easter
The priests all stuck at home
We’re worshipping remotely
The strangest Easter known.
Recall poor Jesus’ passion
The three days in the tomb
Pray for resurrection
For getting out your room.
Three days can change everything
So what will these weeks do?
There’s going to have to be a change
I guess it’s down to you.
Starin’ at the same old interior standing in my own front room
Heard the news in a thousand ways, but it came out soundin’ ‘ just the same
Telly said, man, you better shun the world
I wouldn’t blame you for wanting to leave
But remember one thing, don’t touch your face or go near human beings
So I got out
Paris was a place you could hide away, if you felt you didn’t fit in
French police wouldn’t give me no peace, said that I shoulda’ stayed in
Down along the left bank, minding my own
But they said three or four was a crowd
Got me arrested for invading their space,
when all I did was breath fresh air
I was accused
I moved on
Down in Rome I wasn’t getting enough
Of the things that make a man feel alive
Pope gave a mass to an empty square, seemed I just hadn’t a prayer
Getting desperate, indeed, alone in a tourist attraction
Oh, my dear, had be outt’a there for the vatican won’t give it no sanction
I wasn’t ready for that, no, no
I moved right out east, yeah
On the Peking ferry I was feeling merry, sailing all the way back here
I fell in love with a Chinese girl by the light of an eastern moon
But Shanghai Lil she went and got ill, with a cough that just weren’t natural
We were sent below deck, a right pain in the neck
Stuck on a cruise ship forever
Stuck on a cruise ship forever
I firmly believed that I didn’t need anyone but me
I sincerely thought I was so complete
Seems now that’s how it must be
The women I’ve known I wouldn’t let tie my shoe
They wouldn’t give you the time of day
But life all alone knocked me off my feet
Now all alone I just flounder
And if they had the words I would tell to you
To help you on your way and cope with the life we’re now livin’
I couldn’t quote you no dickens, shelley or keats
‘Cause it’s all been said before
Make the best out of the bad, just laugh it off
You ain’t go in’. Any place anyway, so remember
Every picture tells a story don’t it?
Every picture tells a story don’t it?
Every picture tells a story don’t it?
Every picture tells a story don’t it?
Every picture tells a story don’t it?
Every picture tells a story don’t it?
Yesterday
Life was such a different game to play
We roamed freely, now we have to stay.
How we long for yesterday.
Suddenly
Nothing seems to be
Quite the way it used to be
There’s a sickness means we can’t be free
Oh yesterday went suddenly.
Why it had to go
We all know
We heard them say
But things are so wrong
How we long for yesterday
Yesterday life was such
An easy game to play
Now they say
to hide away
Oh I believe in yesterday
Now you’re far away
And I long for yesterday
Friends I want to see
Can’t be here like yesterday.
Andrew Green's Poems 