2020 Vision

Beginning a hopeful decade

There came a brand new blight,

Whooping with indignation

And wheezing with delight.

Some eight billion people

Roused to join the fight

To not die prematurely

Or speak their last Goodnight.

The Governments were slow to act

They sought to lay the blame

Against some one-or-other

Or animals and game.

The Truth was very different

And only known too late

That plans for “herd immunity”

Advised them just to wait

And let the virus take its toll

Until a peak was reached,

When sufficient numbers were immune

And COVID-19 breached.

They meant for old and vulnerable

Alike to pay the price

To cheaply solve infection

“You can’t catch Covid twice”.

They found some selfish scientists

Who’d just speak as they’re told

That this sickness was harmless

Unless you’re very old.

“We must keep business running”

We heard our rulers shout

And newspapers blamed the poor

For having to go out.

It’ll all be over by Easter

Decreed the Emperor Trump

But the medics all decried him

Declaring him a chump.

Reality was soon to hit

As thousands swamped the wards

Of hospitals still ill equipped

To deal with coughing hoards.

The masks were not forthcoming,

The ventilators still,

Good doctors and their nursing staff

Together falling ill.

A lockdown was agreed abroad

Too late to stem the tide,

Restricting work and life and love,

Too awful to abide.

We tried to stay at home and watch

Life through a neon screen,

To understand with shock and awe

A crisis so obscene

That millions lost their incomes

Whilst taxes bailed their bosses

And police forces and soldiers

Protected them from losses

And food banks were relied upon

By the poor, the weak and ill

“Stay at home, don’t make a fuss

Lie down, lay low, be still!”

But on a Sunday evening

Each came out from their house

To applaud the brave young medics

Who risked their lives for us.

The message started to emerge

That Governments were playing

A fiendish game with all our lives –

Don’t believe what they were saying;

They’d cut our social care to shreds,

Shut our hospitals too,

Denied us beds and privatised,

Huge profits to accrue.

The warnings had come years ago

Prepare for the next pandemic

But politicians of every hue

Said it was academic

That prophesies should not impede

The quest for growth and wealth,

No need to spend or invest at all

To protect the people’s health.

The companies were bailed-out

Whilst workers incurred debt

And landlords planned evictions

If the rent arrears weren’t met.

The banking bosses washed their hands

Of lower interest rates

To charge the earth for overdrafts

For everyone but their mates.

And doctors soon were forced to choose

Who should live or die,

Some lives worth more than others?

The eugenicist’s Great Lie.

And refugees still fresh from grief

Corralled into tent cities

Were collectively quarantined,

Infected without pity.

The pious called it God’s own will,

A judgment on human conditions,

And even climate activists

Applauded low emissions.

The far-Right anti-humanists

Hoped to reap rewards

By brandishing their racism

Of “Death to Foreign Hoards”.

But as the millions became unwell

Throughout the human world

Our anger began to rise and swell

Our banners soon unfurled

“To hell with with your profit margins,

To hell with the billionaire,

The lives of ordinary people

Should be your primary care!

“We pay our taxes willingly

Whilst the super rich pay now’t

So spend our commonwealth on us”,

We heard the People shout.

Enough of all your feeble lies

Deceptions and false news

Leaving us to pay the price

We never shall excuse.

You knew the threat long months ago.

Governments were warned.

You could have stopped this massive spread,

This catastrophe you spawned.

Instead you left the poor to rot

And sought to help the greedy

Profit from our misery

And neglect the weak and needy.

But a time is fast approaching

When your lockdown will be ended

And the wrath of those bereaved and sad

Will call out unimpeded

“Social Justice Now!” And Peace

For all through mass investment

In social infrastructure

And a fair assessment

Of who works for the common good

And who gets off so light

That their greedy exploitation

Proves they’re the parasite!