2020 Ahoy

2020, folks. I mean, what can I even say that hasn't been said? It has been pretty damn terrible here in Melbourne, and we haven't had the worst of it by a long shot.

Here is a poem that I wrote a month ago that sums up what I think about this year so far. (It is far from the only poem I've spun from Our Current Troubles - if there is a silver lining to bushfires, a pandemic, loss of work, huge anxiety and fear, and climate change, I *suppose* it's a renewal of creativity).

I hope all is well with you as can be expected in these dark times. Let's all hope for better days to come.

A Madrigal for the Future We Appear to be Having, Whether We Want it or Not

There were those books that said bad things would come;
the stories and the experts on the shows,
dystopias enough for all, God knows.

And year on year on year the louder hum
the skies all speckled with the warning crows;
Too many ways to look for what's to come
the earth is changing now, and how it shows.

New foes arise to beat the battle drum
the tiny enemies in viral clothes,
the musk and mystery inside the rose.

The future's here: we knew it had to come
the world is weary of us, and it shows:
the past is prologue: everybody knows.