Here are a couple more daily poems by Dave Anthony.
11 April
Purpose defeating
To help poor, disadvantaged, Pakej Prihatin
Cabinet armchair decision tidak turun padang
Purpose defeating.
Self-employed small traders, farmers, fishermen,
Have to be registered with LHDN,
Don’t know Where? How? When?
Purpose defeating.
Internet connectivity a long distant walk
In deep rural areas of Sabah and Sarawak.
Purpose defeating.
Aid not reaching Sungai Asap
Money needed As Soon As Possible,
ATM 160km away tiresomely reachable
Travel cost, ATM rosak, aid frustrated.
Purpose defeating.
New extension can cut hair*
From one meter away?
One barber several clients
Physical contact of touching
Under social distancing order?
Purpose defeating.
Three and a half to one infectivity
Barber shop in full service
Total ineffectivity.
Purpose defeating.
Ill-thought policies of easements
Will create a U-turn of efforts
With Pandemic’s drastic resurgence.
Purpose defeating.
* The decision to allow hairdressers to reopen during the movement control order has since been reversed
******
12 April
Catharsis
Has Covid 19 thrown us into purgatory?
Forced to stay at home marooned, or solitary
Tensed up with fear of impending infection?
Emotionally requiring a dramatic purification?
Social distancing by movement restriction
Opens a portal for online congregation.
flood of jokes, gags, memes for the net consumer
Memes, like Covid, spread from person to person going viral.
Stand-up comedian seated before his computer
Humouring people to laughter,
A people-binder, a cathartic mood-lifter,
A shared social signal, a net connecter,
The best medicine, laughter.
We may be scared, but we are laughing.
For most of us it may be a comic relief, a comfort blanket
What about tragedy that is so funny?
Bad jokes are not funny, the satire is on the joker.
Corona for the stricken, demise of loved ones
‘Tis no laughing matter.
Even for them a healthy timely joke can be a cathartic therapy
When we laugh together with and not at them.
In difficult times, humour is a weapon
In the fight for self-preservation.
We all need be purged.
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