Shifting Population Poem by Jan Oskar Hansen

Shifting population



The foyer at the new hospital was full of women

It was a cold day, and they wore coats, brown /grey

short and squat they looked like toys sprung live

and had to see a doctor promptly.



Algarvian women tend to be short and after marriage

grow sideways till they look as squares of flesh, but they

are beautiful when young what they have in common

though is a tongue they never stop talking and that is why

men spend a lot of time in cafes drink wine and play cards.

Once upon a time this was an Arab province but the beauty

of the Semitic race didn`t stick, the Moslems brought their

own women. The nearest I can compare them to are

the Norwegian people of the north, who one day got, fed up

of cold winds and no oranges, populated this place we now

called the Algarve, and her people are fond of bacalao.