Smiling is Infectious
by Spike Millgan

Smiling is infectious,
you catch it like the flu,
When someone smiled at me today,
I started smiling too.

I passed around the corner,
and someone saw my grin,
When he smiled I realized,
I'd passed it on to him.

I thought about that smile,
then I realized it's worth,
A single smile, just like mine,
could travel round the Earth.

So, if you feel a smile begin.
don't leave it undetected,
Let's start an epidemic quick,
and get the World infected!

An awful verse with no title
by Justin Case

Gardening Australia!
what a source of inspiration,
A beacon in the darkness,
of a Covid-stricken nation.

I watch with fascination,
their fastidious garden grooming,
Mine's just a little overgrown,
it needs some basic pruning.

I recall those little seedlings,
that I bought years ago,
With foliage soft and greyish green,
some with a purplish glow.

Those pretty little seedlings,
in the nursery I had found,
Have grown like bloody blackberries,
and cloned themselves around.

There's hardly any space at all,
no room to swing a cat,
No chance of social distancing,
or anything like that.

So I ventured out there bravely,
armed with nothing more,
Than my Massey-Fergie tractor,
and my Husqrvana saw.

And I toiled on through the weekend,
mission fixed and visage stern,
I grubbed the buggers out of there,
and stacked them up to burn.

And I'm sure in Cootamundra,
folks have everything they need,
They can keep their bloody wattle though,
it's nothing but a weed.

A Cruiser's Lament
by Hugh Gottabe and Joe King

I'd love to go on holidays,
just like we did last year,
Before the Covid thingy came,
and cruise ships disappeared.

They've left our shores for Singapore,
and places far away,
And rusting there at anchor,
wait to sail some other day.

The armada based in Florida,
is silently defeated,
Supplies of old Americans,
are sadly, now depleted.

'Tis just a little flu some say,
a trifling disease,
No worse than norovirus,
on Corona of the Seas.

I'd pack my bags and sail away,
(the Army couldn't stop me),
To places like no place on Earth,
aboard Pacific Petri.

The destination doesn't count,
the journey I would savour,
The Virusdam could sail in circles,
and do us all a favour.

I'd book a cabin straight away,
a mini-suite no less,
I'd go away and come back new,
on Pandemic Princess.

Hydroxychloroquinine 'tis said,
can cure all known diseases,
I've got some in my suitcase,
in case I get the sneezes.

Take me to a tropic beach,
with shady coconut palms,
Gaddani, maybe Chittagong,
I'd really have no qualms.

Alang is quite romantic,
a place to lose your heart,
I'd sail the Queen Covidia there,
and watch her torn apart.

For midnight sun on Nordic Sars,
I'd need my thermal jocks,
A warming scotch with soda,
or maybe on the rocks.

This damned disease is everywhere,
I'll get it sooner or later,
But hopefully I won't come home,
in some ship's refrigerator.

Ships may come back, they may convert,
with purposeful transitioning,
I hear the live sheep export trade,
could use some air conditioning.

What fate awaits these silent ships,
we cannot yet discover,
They might just simply fade away,
the carnival is over.