A Pig's Tail* (National Poetry Month, Free Verse Poem)

Near Egypt is the small country of Pharleem**
Famous for its vegetarian foods,
Especially its veggie pork chops.
They grow their own pig crops.***
When they learned that Egypt was going to slaughter
300,000 pigs because of the Swine Flu emergency,**** *****
It gave them pause for thought. One of their
Principal crops is their pig crop.
Their countryside is filled with pig
Fields and it is now nearing harvestime,******
Pharleem faces the same emergency situation.
Like Egypt's pigs, all their pig crops are healthy,
And there are no cases of Swine Flu among their people,
The pigs, or the pig crops, (the same is true in Egypt.)
The parallels are frightening.
They know they must act quickly.
Even as this article goes to press, the government
Has begun to burn all pig crop fields.
*Please see ***
**A Fictional country
***I am indebted to my daughter, Kristal Cantwell, for joining me in describing the Life Cycle
of the Pharleem Pork Chop Plant. ( As she raised me, she has always encouraged me to be imaginative.)
Life Cycle of the Pharleem Pork Chop Plant
The plant grows in a spiral, out of which a bud forms in the shape of a baby piglet.
At the end of the spiral the pig grows, nose and feet pointing upward.
When the sky and the sun are reflected in the pig's eyes, it's time for harvesting.
No one is sure how the plants reproduce, but tourists are warned not to go in the pig crop fields after dark in late summer.
****http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090430/ap_on_he_me/un_who_swine_flu
*****http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2009/04/egypt-after-avian-flu-egypt-fears-swine-flu-.html
******Can't remember what was supposed to go here. I hate that!