Reign of the Quisling-Rodents

RECIPE

24 Sit On silted kleptomania At rust-coloured river banks And watch Such natural phenomena As money Passing furtively From one leprous hand To the other Etc… Summer suns And a pottage Of sweet potatoes, blighted In the ego-acidic content Of Rotland’s humus There Where such terrible marvels await you Is Rotland; Your land Of promise RECIPE Pour a glass of skimmed graft in a pot Set pot on hellfire and then Put eight kilos of sun-dried STDs, Two spoonfuls of the malaria spice And a pinch Of crushed penury. Add half a litre 25 Of yellow water Fetched in Douala, and Leave to simmer for three generations and seven minutes Then put a handful Of chopped malversation and Stir for a hundred years and twelve seconds. Add two lumps of rapacity-scented Anglophobia and Leave to boil in privation for Ninety-four decades three minutes and then Serve hot N.B For optimum savouring at table Meal must be served Alongside a drink Of boiled headache in an earthen cup DOUALA The mist of travail Hazes over January dawns Souls in silhouette hit the road In the early-morning rush To slavish places of jobsites Then one o’clock…! Afternoons drenched in sweat; Time for the usual scuffle with sultriness When men hopelessly kick the air, Suspended in the smothering hold Of the vexed sun In Bonaberi, at the foot ...