I’d like to shake your hand.
I’d love to hug you
But those gentle acts of kindness,
Once a natural thing
Are now forbidden sins
With a grim sentence of death.

The roads are empty.
So are the bars;
Scars of social distance
Borne near and far.

Fear and uncertainty
Fills the air.
Cases rise like bushfires in Brisbane
Filling ICU’s, beds and morgues
To overflowing.
.
For whom
Tolls the next bell of infection?
A silent killer roams;
Unseen. Unheard. Unhinged.
A nightmare on every street
Of humanity.

Your race or royal blood
Cannot protect you.
Your wealth and walls of segregation
Are useless as an idiot with a blond toupee.

Your life flashes before you.
What heinous deed have we done
To earn this vicious wrath of Nature?
This mutant of terror.
This sobering reminder
Of our fleeting mortality.
Of the need to curb
Our insatiable greed
And abuse of God’s sacred home and children.

~ P