Rachel McCoubrie, Consultant in Palliative Medicine
The A news came first with Austerity raging,
Air-strikes, aquitals, Alzheimers, aging,
Australia and Amazon, ravaged by fire,
Air pollution climbed higher and higher.
B brought us Brexit, dividing opinion,
And Boris behaving like Trump's little minion,
Leavers and Remainers hurled verbal abuse,
As Brexit reporting took over the news.
We thought B was Bad but then followed C,
This Coronavirus called Covid 19,
Highly infectious, sweeping the nation,
We were underprepared for this viral vexation.
The death toll came next as we moved on to D,
In hospitals, care homes, communities,
Numbers, statistics, displayed on our screens,
And families left grieving behind the scenes.
Let's hope as we move through the rest of the year,
The Alphabet News will bring us more cheer,
Education for all, endorsing ecology,
Renewable energy, a stable economy,
Freedom, Fair Trade, fresh food and fun,
Gratitude, Greenpeace, giving up guns,
Housing the homeless, hope, healthy hearts,
Invention, income, investing in arts,
Justice and jobs, kindness all round,
Liberty, learning, love that abounds,
Mindfulness, music, new medicines discovered,
NHS funding, natural beauty uncovered,
Opportunity, openness, organ donation,
Plastics reduced, and pride in the nation,
Pollution solutions, and quality measures,
Racial equality, sporting and leisure,
Scientific discovery, trade deals and tolerance,
Unity, vaccine, good work-life balance,
Women's rights, wellness, wildlife protection,
World peace through leaders finding connection,
With xenophobia a thing of the past,
Young people building a future to last,
With zero tolerance to all types of abuse,
And a zest for more cheerful Alphabet News.
Notes
Alphabet News came about as I was sitting pondering how there had been so much bad news on the News for the first part of this year. I found the Brexit coverage distressing and depressing to watch, then along came Coronavirus and then the alarming updates on the rising Death toll. I noticed the B-C-D sequence and started thinking about what happier news the rest of the alphabet could bring as we go through the rest of the year. This poem turned into a bit of a labour of love finding positive examples for each letter of the alphabet, and on top of that, finding rhyming ones!