Some poems

A BIRD FLU COLLAGE
(Or, a viral asteroid on a collision course with humanity)

Bird flu pandemic could kill 50 000
Virulent flu virus threatens 750 000
Bird flu virus from China Vietnam
Thailand South Korea Cambodia
The Philippines Russia Turkey can
Mutate to cause more than 100 000 deaths!

Let’s test, let’s open all laboratories!
It’s been confirmed deadly H5N1 is here
From chickens in Turkey
From wild birds in Romania
From migrating birds from Russia
From poultry farmers all over Asia

The pestilence has hit our safe shores
Let’s bolt our doors, secure our borders
Lest migrating birds from Africa
Bring the dreaded AIDS virus along.
But Turkey’s entering the European Union
Morocco Singapore Uruguay & Ghana may follow!

Call back all the forces in Iraq
Call back all the forces in Afghanistan
Bring in Tamiflu the antiviral super-drug
We need 14-million doses let’s stockpile
And be sure to treat prisoners first
As we seek to protect the nation!

Then there are letters to the editor
Dear Sir: Can avian flu run amok
In our factory-farmed birds?
Sir: Are festive turkeys under threat?
And Sir: How do humans get it?
With only 60 deaths so far, why worry!

Mama! I’m startled from my reverie
You should stop collecting bird feathers!
Dead geese were found in Hastings and
A quarantined parrot from South America has died!
I turn to my daughter from the Third World
Oh! But it’s only a natural phenomenon!

Tembi Mbobo/ October 2005