Poem Of The Month: March 2012
For March's Poem of the Month, I have chosen the piece End of Species Exam by Paul Tobin.
It is taken from his collection Blessed by Magpies.
END OF SPECIES EXAM
Now that the jig is up, the experiment nearly over, it is time for the
examination. Please answer all the following questions to the best
your ability. Remember your words may be of interest to some future
species, or possibly an interstellar life form, if they can be bothered
to travel all that way to see what a pig’s ear we’ve made of the planet.
Was the long trek out of Africa worth it?
Agriculture, what was all that about then? Especially once the
supermarkets started stuffing both the farmers and the shoppers.
As a species why were we so effective at slaughtering one
another?
What was so amazing about privatisation anyway?
If, as Trotsky said: “War, Comrades, is a great locomotive of
history”, how much of a twat was either Mao, or Stalin, discuss. NB
if neither of those two psycho’s appeals; feel free to write about
another, let’s face it there are enough of the buggers to choose from.
What is the point of Boris Johnson?
Why did half the world starve while the rest of us grew fat?
How much blood, to the nearest pint, was on Tony Blair’s hands?
As a species why did we believe in ideologies over common sense?
Describe with examples how we justified killing other animals
and eating them.
How hard did the Tory cabinet have to work to look so bloody smug?
Why are the heads of the major banks not in prison, or at least
destitute?
Did you really believe the Tory’s when they said the NHS was
safe in their hands?
Why did we spend billions of pounds on Trident?
Name to the nearest year, when you started to believe that we had to
pay for our education. Reflect on the fact that the MPs who made us
pay benefited from free education themselves. How ethical are those
MPs, discuss.
Did anyone really believe them when they said they did not know
about the phone tapping? Answer yes or no.
How did David Cameron manage to sleep at night?
Why did WE allow them to get away with it for so long?
Copyright © Paul Tobin 2011
All rights reserved
The author has asserted her/his right under Section 77
of the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988
to be identified as the author of this work.
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