CURFEW DAY 2

DAY 2 – Aug 4

forty-two days

forty-one nights to go

there’s snow

and hail

and harsh winds blow

and no-one’s getting caught

in showers

between the hours

of eight and five

stayin’ alive

to dodge the ventilator

and the scythe

the plant you now

and dig you later

just like Grantley Dee

chimed in the 60s

when polio was still the go

and we queued for vaccines

like there was no tomorrow

we could defend alone

as if our little lives

depended on it

which they surely did

no question

those calipers were everywhere

in every boomer schoolyard shade

cold steel reminders

of the power of germs

not Germans

mightier than Adolf Hitler

just like COVID

silent, faceless,

stateless, godless

crouching tiger

hidden demon

bringing nations to their knees

our only weapon

muffled stasis

our only country

home.

See also poems read out loud at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9uLwxslE_VQ-fu-Dw6gdIA/playlists

Also https://www.amazon.com.au/Day-At-Time-Rhyme/dp/0648083861/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=A+Day+At+A+Time+In+Rhyme+Jane+Clifton&qid=1572053238&sr=8-1