WORLD WAR THREE
Throughout
our brief history
We’ve been
beset by many wars
When our
brave soldiers sailed away
To fight on
foreign shores.
So many
feats of valour
Through the
blood and guts and gore
That kept
outside marauders
From
reaching our front door.
They fought
them in the trenches
And battled
on high seas
With
horrific scenes of conflict
Waged
through jungle trees.
Countless
numbers died there
While so
many more were maimed
And the
lives of umpteen others
Disease,
privation claimed.
Now the
airplanes flying overhead
Are not
machines of war
No bombs are
dropping from the sky
Pray God
there’ll be no more.
I can’t hear
the guns crescendo
Or the
cannons barrage roar
No bugles
sound the calling
No troops rally to the fore.
It was from
some ominous story
Coming to us
from the East
That some
nasty viral clusters
Had been
contracted from some beast
But before
we knew for certain
It was too
late to stop the rout
For this
awful new pandemic
Had already
broken out.
There was no
martial warning
No
declaration made of war
To prepare
us for an onslaught
Like none
had known before.
No
boundaries were respected
Like a
‘blitzkrieg ‘ they were breached
And before
the world could rally
To every
land it reached.
There were
no means of fighting
So began the
mass retreat
To the
sanctuary of our houses
Was it
capitulation or defeat?
What use are
those great arsenals
And the
fearsome war machine?
What good
against an enemy
That nobody
has seen?
It
thrives among the multitudes
Who roam the seven seas
From hand to hand we pass on
This insidious disease.
Our travelling days are ended
There can now be no pretence
When isolation is proven
As
our only one defence.
It will take
a strong conviction
Discipline
and self restraint
And we’ll
need to stay the distance
With the
patience of a Saint.
All this
social isolation
Does not
come easily
‘For no man
is an island’
That’s not
what he’s meant to be.
If ever
there was reason though
To maintain
a staunch resolve
Look at the
global numbers
Which every
day evolve.
The
infection rate extending
In an ever
growing poll
And watch
the dire ‘Grim Reaper’
Count up his
daily toll.
So to the
solitude surrender
And let the
days slide by
Looking
forward to the dawning
When all our
souls are free to fly
For the
plague that is around us
Well -
eventually will just be
A long
forgotten nightmare
And a
distant memory.
Rodd Sherwin
Back to -