Robert Godfrey
Sparrows and Steel
The sparrows were declared to be a pest
Their eradication was ordered
So the people used sticks, catapults, guns
Anything they could lay their hands on
To kill the sparrows
Which soon became a rare species
And those who killed the most sparrows
Were highly praised
Heroes of the people
They were given awards
But with the sparrows gone
The insect population grew out of control
And the insects swarmed
and decimated the crops
While the peasants were ordered to make steel
To help the economy
They set up home made kilns in the villages
Door knobs, woks, bicycles
The peasants melted down anything and everything
To make steel
Which was of poor quality
And useless
And while making the steel
The peasants neglected the crops
Already ravaged by the insects
The crops lay rotting
Nothing had been planted
And a famine ensued
In which it is estimated
20 million Chinese starved to death
And Mao Tse-Tung died on 9th September 1976
With a full belly
And no remorse.
Page(s) 23
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The