Annie was eighty and lived in a care home

Someone had wanted her out of the way

Unsung staff were her guardian angels

Love of the job more important than low pay

 

The home was a sanctuary for Annie

For her age she was mobile and fit

Her life was peaceful and quite secure

Until the day the covid-19 pandemic hit

 

Matron and her assiduous staff

Worried about Annie and her friends

At their age they were vulnerable

At the mercy of a what a virus sends

 

On Friday Annie went down with high fever

Those old lungs too weak for the scourge

One of the pen-pushers at the hospital said

"No admission" despite Matron's urge

 

Numbers of deaths must be massaged

And anyhow "they were awaiting a shipment"

(Some cock-up between here and Turkey)

Of personal protective equipment

 

In the home staff strove night and day

In personal danger and ill-equipped

By now Annie was one of several victims

At dawn on Sunday out of this life she slipped

 

Annie and her peers are an ornament

The value of the old deserves another look

Yet third-rate mandarins survive and prosper

Will they ever be brought to book?