Ode to Covid Carers.

 

To intensive care and virus wards each day

In every town they make their way.

Caring souls, disguised in blue and white,

To fight against the Covid blight.

Shift after shift, through night and light

Brothers and sisters of mercy face up to our plight.

Masked, shielded, smocked and booted

lonely, fearful, solely commuted

on the near empty bus and tram

where no-one speaks or gives a damn.

So worried they may pass on this bug

to those at home they dearly love…

Many plot up in hostels and hotels

Exhausted, in a room that feels like a cell

Restlessly waiting to return to the hell

Of wheezing coughing comatose souls

Whose lives hang under God’s control.

 

Mothers, Fathers from Bolton to Cannes,

Uncles, Aunties, Grandads and Grans,

Sitting ducks for an invisible killer,

Waiting for help from the Governing tiller.

Mavis, fifty knows all their names,

Has no regrets from when she became

A carer who sings and gives pale cheeks a tweak

Trains young Alice whose been there two weeks.

They play Bingo and Chairobics with laughs a plenty

As each dawn sees another chair empty…

Carry on with a plastic apron and a pathetic mask

Risking all to perform their tasks…

All the management can do is ask and ask…

Politicians who have cultivated a mortal sin

And consigned our old folk to the recycle bin.

 

Ordinary people who deserve all praise

Weekly applause? No! Just PPE and a raise.

Posties, Farmers, Busmen and Food makers,

Supermarket lads and lasses, Butchers and Bakers,

Coppers, Binmen, Drivers and Foodbank folk

Keep this septic country from going broke.

Squaddies are helping to get us all tested

So, isolation shackles may be lifted…

Until then, lockdown breakers like Westminster Bridge

Stay home you fools with your overloaded fridge.

Was it you who bought all the gel and bog rolls?

Should get your collars felt by the numpty patrol.

 

One day in the future…if we are still here

We will look back to this time and our great fears

And judge whether fat cats came before compassion

Or economic worries outweighed oxygen rations

Failure to plan and stock up for a pandemic scene

Voted down Nurses pay to cheers by the mean

Decade of healthcare cuts and shaming disabled

‘We’re all in it together’ is just a fable.

So, will those ‘in charge’ face the fallout?

For them there should be no hideout.

Will Boris pull out some of his blonde locks?

It’s up to us at the next Ballot Box.