April Falls (For ‘Easter 1916’)
I wrote this poem inspired by Yeats’ poem above, about the Easter Risings tragedy in Ireland 1916 under the British Empire.
I started lockdown at dawn
with the rising of the sun
watching my blinds as orange begins to run —
at the supermarket I watch bobble heads
still minds still in the land of nod
of good mornings and cough cough
men and women hacking phlegm
trollies stockpiled to feed the 5000
on social media I see tall tales
and conspiracy cures for Mr COVID-19
turmeric, garlic, tea teeming with ginger
folks fiercely defending their cause –
curing their symptoms,
that turned Bergamo into Pompei
and Wuhan into Vesuvius,
like anthrax gas, a vice-like choke-hold
their advice:
stay at home, you will save lives
stay inside with mother’s cries
read that book, time to fill
the more you resist, the more it kills
but today USA stands in abstinence
coronavirus spreads
like springtime seeds
through the souls of ageing Britain
Don spends days in argument
what voice more sordid than his
when Cuba rode to Rome,
as New York’s mouth starts to fizz
he who won fame with Hamilton
flounder 200 years later
is America’s city of lights
too much of a sacrifice
will eight million hearts suffice
as corona claims a child
when the Odinsleep comes to haunt
youth and innocence now defiled
for England carries on
the Tories keep the faith,
as we all stand at the pearly gates
Brexit dreams and lies said
valued more than the dead
and I write in song –
blue team wearing red
but Mr Blue play the dong
and this history is archived
Earth will be changed utterly (or not)
