HOLIDAYS IN TIME OF COVID19

This year holiday shopping is mostly virtual.  Stores and malls are closed or limit hours or numbers of shoppers.  No big gatherings of friends or family - just a very different holiday season.

Here's my take on a favorite holiday tune!

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Joan Reconsiders the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, 

But there’s no jingle-belling, 

And who can be telling us words of good cheer,

As in past wonderful times of the year!

It’s the most worrisome time of the year!

Can we be celebrating,

if we’re also hating and living in fear?

At this most feverish time of the year!

It’s the most pitiful time of the year.

When we all should be shopping,

Until we are dropping, at malls far and near.  

It’s the most frustrating season, that’s clear! 

It’s the most blunderful time of the year.

Our leaders have failed us, 

A dire ill ails us, and leaves us in fear!

At this most dangerous time of the year!

Parody Lyrics (c) 2020 by Joan Levin

With apologies to Edward Pola and George Wyle whose 1963 classic I have borrowed and parodied here!

Note: I'm also posting this at:

https://joansoccasionalpoems.blogspot.com/2020/11/holidays-in-time-of-covid19.html 

and

https://joanslyrics.blogspot.com/2020/11/holidays-in-time-of-covid19.html

DON'T CRY FOR ME!

 Who can forget Madonna's performance as Evita Peron in the movie adaptation of the Broadway hit, EVITA? 

The most memorable song from this musical was "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina," when the beloved Argentine first lady knew her end was imminent.  

Don't cry for me, Argentina!

The truth is I never left you.

I’ve kept my promise,

Don’t keep your distance, 

All through my wild days, 

My mad existence

Many are crying during these difficult days. Even a well known American politician, Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has been known to cry!

For example, when Senator LaMar Alexander (R-TN) recently decided to retire, Senator Mitch McConnell actually burst into tears. 

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/02/politics/mitch-mcconnell-lamar-alexander-tribute/index.html

And: 

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/mitch-mcconnell-gets-choked-up-during-tribute-to-lamar-alexander/2020/12/05/b4bdba69-d33a-4985-bf3a-de950e2eaa62_video.html

This is the same Senator Mitch McConnell who had nothing but smiles and chuckles as COVID-19 illness and deaths continued to escalate!

As I lie here in lonely quarantine, I cannot help thinking:

Don’t cry for me Mitch McConnell,

I’m not your Senate buddy,

All through these sad days,

While COVID's winning,

You've kept your distance,

And kept on grinning!

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THE LADY OF SHALOTT LIVES TODAY

As explained in Wikipedia: 

"The Lady of Shalott" is a lyrical ballad by the English poet Alfred Tennyson. Based on the medieval La Damigella di Scalot, it tells the tragic story of Elaine of Astolat, a young noblewoman imprisoned in a tower up the river from Camelot. One of the poet's best-known works, its vivid medieval romanticism and enigmatic symbolism inspired many painters, especially the Pre-Raphaelites and their followers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lady_of_Shalott

The entire poem, written in the mid-19th Century, is set out in the links below.  I first encountered it in Mr. Liddell's English Literature class at Antioch College around 1955.  

Our final exam asked us, among other things, to write a brief essay about this line:  

" 'I am half sick of shadows' said the Lady of Shalott."   

That line, in the final stanza of Part II of this epic poem, finds this noble lady tiring of being sequestered in a castle where she must remain indefinitely.  

It haunts me now as I hover in isolation during the current COVID-19 crisis, communicating with the world, friends and family only via "shadows" on my TV, computer, or cell phone.  

Here is that line in context: 

From Alfred Lord Tennyson -- Lady of Shalott

But in her web she still delights

To weave the mirror's magic sights,

For often thro' the silent nights

A funeral, with plumes and lights,

And music, went to Camelot:

Or when the moon was overhead,

Came two young lovers lately wed;

'I am half sick of shadows,' said

The Lady of Shalott

I too, am "half sick of shadows!"  

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Notes: 

There are two versions of the poem; this verse is in each:

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45359/the-lady-of-shalott-1832

https://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/text/tennyson-lady-of-shalott-1842

More analysis here but you might have to pay for it: 

https://www.litcharts.com/poetry/alfred-lord-tennyson/the-lady-of-shalott#:~:text=Tennyson%27s%20famous%20%22The%20Lady%20of%20Shalott%22%20%281842%29%20is,is%20not%20allowed%20even%20to%20look%20in%20that

Thanks, Mr. Liddell!  

THE HOUSE WHERE I LIVE

This is about what happens when I must buy staples in bulk online as I can no longer shop normally in stores.

It also references my Prolia-broken back, about which more at: www.JoansBackboneDisaster.com

(Tune: The Street Where You Live from My Fair Lady) 

The House Where I Live

I have often lived under stress before, 

But my house has never seemed like such a mess before! 

Now the clutter’s nigh seven stories high! 

What goes on in the house were I live? 

Since the COVID struck, and my backbones broke, 

And I have no car, my purchasing is now no joke! 

Though it makes me sulk, I must buy in bulk, 

I can’t walk from the house where I live! 

    And it’s oh, the sorrowful feeling, 

    Just to see this mess everywhere! 

    The overpowering feeling, 

    That I am drowning and no one will know or care! 

I am thankful that it is not too hard, 

All I need is my computer and a credit card!

So my daily feat, if I want to eat, 

Seems to clutter the house where I live!

Parody Lyrics (c) 2020, Joan Levin

 

JAUNTY JOE BIDEN

Oh Jaunty Joe Biden came out of the East,
Determined to slaughter the cruel COVID Beast.
His friends and his family urged him to run, 
And he and Young Kamala easily won.  
    He was honest and open, he never was hidin’ 
    He won a majority, Jaunty Joe Biden!

So boldly he entered that Wilmington Hall,
Midst hardworking loyal campaigners and all, 
Then spoke The Donald, all red-faced and sore,
For he’d certainly live in the White House no more.
  “You stole my election!  My votes you were hidin’
   You’ll never replace me, you upstart Joe Biden!"

But Jaunty Joe Biden adjusted his mask, 
He clearly was going to be up to the task!
The Donald skulked grumbling out of the hall, 
To drive to Bedminster and whack at a ball!
    While the ladies he dated each stifled a yawn,
    And said to each other “Thank goodness, he’s GONE!”

Parody by Joan Levin

December, 2020

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* With apologies to Sir Walter Scott (1871-1932) who wrote one of my favorite poems -- Lochinvar!  https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52300/lochinvar

IF VIRUSES COULD TALK, WHAT STORIES WOULD THEY TELL?

I wonder about extinct animals like the Wooly Mammoths as they may have been at the beginning of the Ice Age some 50,000 years ago. 

Some were probably thinking:  

“Golly, it’s sure chilly this year!  I’d better grow a shaggy coat!” 

And then thinking: "Oh no, surely next year will be better!"   

But it wasn't better.  And now we can visit the remains of these extinct animals — dug from once-frozen earth -- in museums!  

I wonder — given Ebola, and HIV, etc. —  if we are entering a new age of deadly viruses.  

We developed protection from some.  Smallpox is just one example.  And hopefully some of the vaccines being developed today will offer the world relief from COVID-19. 

But I can’t shake this “Gary Larson Far Side” type of image of a group of little viruses sitting in their virus school with their teacher (also a virus) explaining that there was a time when enormous creatures called “human beings” lived on earth and how they assailed us but how we prevailed!  

"How scary!" the little viruses would cry.

“But don’t we need human or other animal hosts in order to survive?" they would ask.  "What if they become extinct?"    

“Don’t worry,” their virus teacher would reassure them. “We left just enough humans and other animals for that!”

 

See what happens during isolation and social distancing when the imagination runs riot?!

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