What is this poem about?
What do you like about it?
When we performed it, what made it so effective?
The Malfeasance
It was a dark, dank, dreadful night
And while millions were abed
The Malfeasance bestirred itself
And raised its ugly head.
The leaves dropped quietly in the night,
In the sky Orion shone;
The Malfeasance bestirred itself
Then crawled around till dawn.
Taller than a chimney stack,
More massive than a church,
It slithered to the city
With a purpose and lurch.
Squelch, squelch, the scaly feet
Flapped along the roads;
Nothing like it had been seen
Since the recent fall of the toads.
Bullets bounced off the beast,
Aircraft made it grin,
Its open mouth made an eerie sound
Uglier than sin.
Still it floundered towareds,
Still the city reeled;
There was panic on the pavements,
Even policemen squealed.
Then suddenly someone suggested
(As the beast had done no harm)
It would be kinder to show it kindness
Better to stop the alarm.
When they offered it refreshment
The creature stopped in its track;
When they waved a greeting to it
Steam rose from its back.
As the friendliness grew firmer
The problem was quietly solved:
Terror turned to triumph and
The Malfeasance dissolved.
And where it stood there hung a mist,
And in its wwake a shining trail,
And the people found each other
And thereby hangs a tail.
Alan Bold.