THE WAR ON THE SPARROWS
In 1958 the Great Helmsman
ordered the massacre of
the sparrows,
declaring them parasites
of the paddies.
He said they ate
too much rice,
depriving the People
With absolute faith in the
Revolution, the People
obeyed without question
the Great Helmsman
as they hungered for rice.
They tore down the nests
of the sparrows,
shot them out of the sky,
drummed loudly and ate
them, scared them to their
deaths from the paddies.
Political power grows from
a gun barrel, not paddies.
and Nature isn’t a
politician, for the People
didn’t know the sparrows,
dead by the millions, ate
more than just grain. The
Great Helmsman
looked on impassively. The
sparrows
had kept down the locusts,
who also liked rice.
The Genghis horde of the
locusts devoured the rice.
Outnumbering the Red Army,
they fell on the paddies.
The People died by the
millions like the sparrows
for there wasn’t any food
for the People
and the Great Helmsman
shrugged, sat down at his
table, and ate.
Famine gripped the land.
Parents cooked and ate
their children for want of
rice,
children gnawed on their
parents, and the Great Helmsman
watched them lie down and
die in the paddies.
There was nothing for the
People
and the Chairman ate a
dish of sparrows.
In 1960 Mao quietly
pardoned the sparrows
declaring he’d actually
meant the bedbugs who ate
the blood of the People.
It was still a long time
before there was rice
again in the paddies
as confidently predicted
by the Great Helmsman.
Once more the sparrows
pecked at the rice
and ate the locusts that
plagued the paddies
and the People cheered the
wisdom of the Great Helmsman.
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