Viral Conversation

Tags

Australian poet, Civet cat, limerick, Limerick poem, Limerick poetry, poem, poetry, Wuhan Virus

𝐕𝐢𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

Two viruses having a chat:
“I come from Wuhan, via a bat.”
Said the other microbe
Whilst adjusting his robe:
“This is genuine fur — civet cat.”

— D.N. O’Brien

Early Years of the Archidamian War

Tags

Ancient Greece, Athenian walls, Athens, Attica, Australian poet, Corona virus crisis, 𝐀𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐖𝐚𝐫, Formal poetry, poem, poetry, Sparta, Spartans, The Peloponnesian War, Wuhan Virus

𝐄𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐖𝐚𝐫

The Spartans stone the walls and shout:
“Athenians, come fight! Come out!
We raise no walls; we fear no foes,
And our contempt for you, it grows!”

Athenians are in lock-down.
They singly stroll about the town.
They hear the Spartans call outside.
Behind their walls they safely hide.

The blackened ground no longer yields,
As Spartans burn Athenian fields.
The silver and the gold run out.
Athenians begin to doubt.

These are the early years of war.
There are much crueler years in store.
The Spartans very soon take wing;
But they’ll be marching back in spring.

— D.N. O’Brien

Don Trump

Tags

Australian poet, Corona Virus, G.K. Chesterton, Hubei China, Lepanto, poem, poetry, Wuhan China, Wuhan Virus

𝐃𝐨𝐧 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐩

{With apologies to G.K. Chesterton}

Dull day dawning in the markets of Hubei.
The word is out that they have closed;
The word is but a lie.
The cages hold the civet cats, the snakes spit with forked tongues,
And in the soup are floating bats with microbes in their lungs.
The mice for mince, the rabid rats, the feral frogs ferment;
The viruses invisible, they coat the wet cement.
And they’ve been warned and they’ve been warned, and they’ve been warned before,
And Don Trump of over-there is tired of blood and gore.
A threat to all the kingdom, and a threat he can’t ignore,
And Don Trump of over-there is settling a score.
They’re poisoning the innocent — they’re poisoning the poor,
And Don Trump of over-there is marching off to war.

— D.N. O’Brien

The Virus from Nowhere

Tags

Australian poet, Corona Virus, limerick, Limerick poem, Limerick poetry, poem, poetry, Political Correctness, Wuhan Virus

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗩𝗶𝗿𝘂𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗡𝗼𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲

A bug from nowhere makes one sneeze,
And sniffle and whimper and wheeze,
And snuffle and snort;
A foreign import —
It comes from nowhere, overseas.

— D.N. O’Brien

Wuhan Corona Virus