Barbarians Poem by Mary Champion

With apologies to C. P. Cavafy
28/3/2020

What are we waiting for, assembled in our front rooms?

The barbarians are around today.

Why isn't anything going on in parliament?
Why are our representatives no more sitting?

Because the barbarians are all round today.
What's the point of our MPs making laws now?
Now the barbarians are here, they'll dictate what's happening.


Why did our old monarch leave for the country?
and why is her heir apparent entombed behind thick walls?
He's self-isolating!

Because the barbarians are in charge today
and all of us are waiting to receive their venom.
Despite the masks and the hand-washing
we understand the odds are against us.


Why have our leaders and their experts come out today
wearing their baggy suits and their trailing ties?
Why are they standing two metres apart - the social norm?
So careful they don't breathe on anybody,
and desperate not to be breathed upon.
Not enough masks and goggles to go round,

although, the barbarians are with us today
and such things would baffle the barbarians.


Why do our distinguished orators turn up as usual
with nothing new or original to say?

Because the barbarians are with us today
who aren't fazed by rhetoric and public speaking.


Why this sudden bewilderment, this confusion?
(How serious people's faces have become.)
Why are the streets and squares emptying so rapidly,
everyone going home lost in thought?

Because this time it's for real, the barbarians have come.
And some of our men just in from the border say
they have seen barbarians everywhere.


Now what's going to happen to us when barbarians
threaten us with their final solution?