A ant and termite eater
A gentle shy slow mover
Covered in scales
And why keratin like our
hair and animal horn
In India and Africa
It wishes it wasn’t born
the Chinese
And the Vietnamese use the scales
And they dry or fry
And use them as a medicine
And why
Rheumatism arthritis
Convulsions it’s been said
The Chinese eat the delicate flesh
As meat
Thousands dead
Supposedly delicious
It rolls into a ball that’s it means of escaping
It hardly runs at all
Rex Tyler is a Poet, Campaigner, former owner of an organic shop of 30 years, and Public Speaker living in Berkhamsted, UK.