Rhymes and Reason: Pandemic, Polemic and Prose

By Alan McDonald

Since CORONAVIRUS reached our shores, we've had a year like no other, one which has changed our society and lives. There have been highs and lows, serious events, poignancy and absurdity.

 

This book chronicles the unfolding of the Pandemic with comment and poems, mostly Limericks.

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Alan McDonald
• Release date: Jul 8, 2021
• ISBN: 9781802270341

Book preview

RHYMES AND

REASON

Pandemic Polemic and Prose

A Journal March 2020-21

Alan McDonald

Copyright © 2021 by Alan McDonald

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any form of retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior permission in writing from the publishers except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

eBook: 978-1-80227-034-1

Paperback: 978-1-80227-033-4

Further praise for ‘Rhymes and Reason’:

Satire is very welcome in the face of all the odd things that have happened. The verses are such fun – a great record of the year.

— Andrew Chicken

Sums up the situation and mood of the time.

— Rowena Owen

A great example of British understated humour.

— Rachel Dechezeaux

Lots of stories and events I’d forgotten.

— John Wilson

I loved these limericks, they are short, snappy and brought a smile to my face. Some are really funny, some much more serious and thought provoking.

— Publishing Plus Proof Reader

A lovely mixture of humour and caustic comment.

— Lucy Holden

Brilliant, gave a lot of pleasure.

— Sheila Bewick

To Mary, Flora & Robert,

for putting up with me.

Contents

Introduction

We all watched the spread of Coronavirus across Asia and Europe and wondered what would happen when it reached our shores. We were perhaps a bit blasé, after all, we were prepared, with a world-beating health system, weren’t we?

In its wisdom, the government issued guidelines;

Wash your hands regularly for at least 20seconds;

Keep at least 2 metres apart (social distancing);

Don’t touch your face.

Follow these and all would be well!

Then came the bombshell. Professor Ferguson of Imperial College produced a model which showed that, if nothing was done, we would be facing a huge number of cases, the NHS would be overwhelmed, and there could be up to 500,000 deaths.

The Government panicked; March 23rd, 2020, lockdown was im-posed.

One of the classes in our local Produce Show was to write a Lock-down Limerick, and since then, I've been chronicling the year in Limericks, mostly composed whilst riding my bike through the quiet Yorkshire Dales - Poetry in Motion!

It turned into something of a journal.

Not all the Limericks follow the standard format, and some of the poems aren’t in limerick form at all, but I think they all stand in their own right.

Some of the players, in case you’ve forgotten:

March

‘Social Distancing’ became the new buzz phrase, although I can’t think of anything less social than having to keep 2 metres apart from everyone!

We must acknowledge