The Bad Box

When I was studying "Writing Poetry and Short Fiction" at the University of Tasmania we used a text that contained many exercises to help us attempt to write poetry. It was all very non traditional, and so none of the poetry ended up sounding like poetry! One of the exercises was called "The Bad Box". My bad box effort demonstrates why I have not returned to a secular university . . . I got so tired of post-modernists, Marxists and feminists that this piece of writing was the result! I realised even at the time that I didn't want them to all be put into a box, but they were still the first to come to mind when I considered this exercise! My lecturers liked it because it was honest. Here it is:

I will put in the box
Church leaders who teach falsely
Plus all post-modernists, Marxists and feminists
And anyone at all who persecutes Christians

The walls of the box will be transparent
Yet impossible to physically penetrate
Either from the inside or the outside

The box will have plenty of sunlight
Many rooms, even libraries and nurseries
Indoor plants and pet birds

The church leaders will assure everyone
Marxism, feminism and post-modernism
Are completely compatible with Christianity

The post-modernists will state emphatically
That nothing is right unless it is relative
Condemning everyone with exclusive views

The Marxists will declare a dictatorship
Desiring everyone to have equality
With regard to pet birds and books

The feminists will object to it all
They will apportion off their own area
Complaining day and night about patriarchy

The persecutors of Christians
Will mope sadly with no one to laugh at
Until one of their own is converted

The box will be kept in the Australian desert
Where incredulous toursists can go and look
While the inhabitants self-destruct.