A Sea Bird Poem by Jan Oskar Hansen

A The Sea Bird
During the occupation of Norway when many fled to
Sweden or England the new generation has forgotten that
in their hatred of refugees.
I remembered a seabird called Alke which was snared
It was a big bird and needed hours to cook and served with
boiled potatoes and brown gravy which I liked
but I was not keen on the bird it tasted of cod-liver oil
but had to eat some meat usually through tears and mother
hitting me over the head with a wooden spoon.

After the war and little work in factories, the alke was hunted to
near extinction, luckily it was saved in time.
The Norwegians see the world through a fog of self- inflicted fear
feel inundated by a few migrants,
now that the oil price has fallen they would like to see the newcomers,
like the alke, become a rarity