With The Corona Virus Loose Just Before The Lock-Down Date Poem by Gert Strydom

People were buying up everything in the shop,
right here at the Springs Strubenvale Pick n Pay
people did not their two-meter distance stay,
with a trolley a lady rushed into me, did not stop,

They had charcoal with steak and chops on top,
right here my own people thought it a holiday,
together they clucked, in large groups did stay,
insolent impudent with death they wanted to drop,

I thought this a cultural thing, the distancing,
that personal space were respected by my own,
that they knew a simple cough could death bring,
they did not regard it: this virus deadly, unknown,
to the much higher authority they were not listening
and this is probably how a country does brake down.

[Poet's note:I am talking here about white Afrikaans and English people of all ages.]
© Gert Strydom