I went to Walmart this morning - yes, it was very brave.
My dander was up - I was on high alert - for active shooters and the unmasked.

Then I saw him! A man on the cookie aisle - he looked like he had the monkeypox!
So I kicked him in the nuts and ran - you can’t be too careful out there.

It turns out that he was just an 80-year-old retiree wearing a polka-dot shirt.
I apologized - from a safe distance - as the paramedics carted him away.

It felt like a close call.

I could catch
covid or I could
catch monkeypox
or  I could catch
a bullet when
times are good

We dined on caviar
And famine in Europe
Seemed most unlikely
The world began to burn

We watched the queues lengthen
As the poor queued at foodbanks
But our Ocado deliveries
Continued nonetheless

Rebellious types protested
And journeys took longer
Really very annoying
We hoped that they’d be jailed

The news was full of Amber
And next season’s fashions
Ukraine, Yemen and Gaza
Were very far away

Life went on as normal
The monkeypox came to us
The insects died in millions
And we started then to fear

Life went on as normal
The sea levels were rising
But that is in the future?
And still the world burned

Life went on as normal
But food was more expensive
The poor were still hit hardest
And still the world burned

Life went on as normal
We began to see the die off
We still had ***** and burgers
And still the world burned

Life began change as
We knew we should have acted
Food was getting scarcer
And still the world burned
And still the world burned
And still the world burned
And still the world burned.

It seems so hard to carry on
War in Europe, inflation, monkeypox.
I would rather live in the past
and shop at the Co-op,
for their community fund purposes
and uber polite staff.
And of course, I go to the Isle of Wright for a day trip,
again to live in their 90s  past
about 20 years behind the mainland,
and I'd buy a Yashica kyocera 230 AF
so I can snap in kodak black and white,
in manual  metering only,
oh the rivalry  of being retrospective.