A Year of Great Distress

 

 

If there could be a competition

For the most challenging year of all,

2020 would in the highest rank,

Please my readers, do not applaud.

 

This is a dubious distinction

Given COVID-19’s colossal say,

For even before the year 2020 began

COVID was headed our way.

 

It changed our way of life

With many necessary protocols,

The hand washing was not a problem

But the mask became our downfall.

 

The twenty-four-hour curfews

Coupled with long supermarket queues

Triggered the oft asked question,

When will this terror be through?

 

 

Funeral rituals were almost cancelled

With numbers severely reduced,

Eight at the viewing and ten at the service

Seemed more like an abuse.

 

Such was our mother’s funeral

During the twenty-four-hour curfew,

We were forced to send her off

Knowing she did not get her due.

 

How it pained or sorrowing hearts

That many more could not attend,

COVID-19 was large and in charge

And driving us around the bend.

 

Millions around the world

Have succumbed to its onslaught

And now with the noise of a second strain

Many have become more distraught.

  

Sixteen cases in one day

The highest for Barbados so far,

We have handled it better than most

But it seems we are coming on par.

 

People are struggling big time

Having lost their jobs and income,

Unable to feed their families and pay their bills

They are feeling quite undone.

 

We are into blended learning:

Teacher-student contact and remote,

But in dire need of electronic devices

This is proving to be no sport.

 

Vaccines are coming on stream

But there is much apprehension,

Many are the arguments for and against

And no small matter of suspicion.

 

 

It is difficult to imagine

A time when there will be no COVID,

We are now in need of a giant slayer;

Will somebody summon a David?

 

Tourist destinations are struggling

With travel severely hampered

And the fall off in hotel occupancy

Has on economies placed a damper.

 

Quarantine is very much in vogue

Self-isolation an alternative

But the fallout from this COVID-19

Is internationally extensive.

 

2020! A year of great distress

And next year’s outlook appears bleak,

COVID-19 is taking hundreds more lives

Even as we speak.

 

Stewart Russell © December 25, 2020