SONG OF THE STIMULUS PACKAGE

 

What did you do with your stimmy*?

Didn’t waste it, I hope, on the nags.

Did you give it to naughty young Jimmy?

In which case it went up in fags.

 

Thank God for the Covid that shook

the tight fists deep in the coffers

showering dollars that made us all look

like voters grabbing their offers.

 

Am I my brother’s job keeper?

No way – I couldn’t care less:

He’s an unemployed non-job sleeper,

so I’ll grab his allowance for Bess.

 

Nice for once to have enough cash

to buy steak and chips – quite a change.

Won’t splurge on anything rash

‘cept bacon and eggs –  free-range.

 

I s’pose one day it will go

and heave us back in the poo.

But stimmy was quite a good show.

Here’s to it – ‘n Covid ‘n you!

*stimmy is American slang for the stimulus payments made to individuals during Covid.

DIGITAL CODE

 

Our group of elders was eating salad.

I’d dropped tomato on the floor:

slowly, I bent to pick it up.

 

I was lost underwater,

dizzy, not in a forest of kelp,

but of feet and legs.

 

My friend opposite wore open sandals

so I had a close-up of his toes –

mature, damaged goods.

 

What stories were encoded in each,

of hikes, steep climbs, balls kicked,

caresses of a lover?

 

History locked beneath thickened nails,

inside calluses, beside bent bones; his mind

had begun to follow the same trend.

 

One day gene science and IT may let us read

the code of history in each toe.

But would we really wish to know?