XVII

Good day, I’m a farmer in Borneo,
Where the coconut palm and the mango grow.
Here are honey bears, rhinos, and tiger cats.
Great falcons, flamingoes, and foxy-faced bats.
Here are gold and quicksilver, rubber and rice,
Cane and sugar – but not everything nice:
     When they sprayed my hut with insecticide,
     My rat-catching cat soon sickened and died.
     When the rats crawled in, I was filled with fear:
     The plague can kill more than malaria here.
     When my roof beams caved in, I moved next door,
     Until their roof beams collapsed to the floor.
But please do not think I wish to offend,
For DDT is the farmer’s good friend.
Still, perhaps you’ll allow a poor man to say,
He hopes men of science will soon find a way
To kill mosquitoes till all, they are dead –
But save the roof beams which are over my head,
As well as my most useful rat-catching cat.
How grateful I’d be if you’d only do that!
     then, men of science, I would not complain.
     But now I must look to my roof – I smell rain!


 

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