Lockdown

By Giles Turner

The daffodils nodded their heads in the breeze
A blackbird was singing high in the trees
As I sat in the garden, it was sunny and green
And the world was in lockdown with Covid 19.

They said: ‘wash your hands and don’t go anywhere,
avoid other people, stay home in your lair.’
But a frenzy of shopping was soon to be seen,
Then the world was in lockdown with Covid 19.

It was eerily quiet all over the town,
The doors were all closed and the shutters were down.
It felt like a Sunday in 1913
For the world was in lockdown with Covid 19.

Then a solitary figure was seen walking by
With a placard proclaiming: ‘The End it is Nigh.’
While others just wondered why God was so mean
As to burden the people with Covid 19.

And from a Welsh mountain some goats wandered down,
they decided to go for a walk round the town.
They’d heard that Llandudno was calm and serene,
And they didn’t have to worry about Covid 19.

But with very few people going out anywhere
There were very few engines polluting the air.
There was never a time when the air was so clean
As during the lockdown with Covid 19.

And old Mister Hockney some respite did bring,
He said as he painted: ‘They can’t cancel Spring.’
And he painted the blossoms that brighten the scene
And help take our minds off Covid 19.

So the daffodils nodded their heads in the breeze,
The blackbird still sang high in the trees
As I sat in the garden, still sunny and green,
While the world was in lockdown with Covid 19.

I wrote it back in March, early in the first lockdown. We were in Brittany, where we have a small cottage. The lockdown in France started a week earlier than the UK, and the ferries abruptly stopped sailing from Roscoff. Faced with hours and hours of driving to return home by any other route, we decided to stay. I wrote the song sitting in the garden in perfect peace and quiet, and clean air.