Train journeys through rural England are becoming toxic for green Quakers. Carol Barker, who’s from Ludlow, was travelling by train through Shropshire and Herefordshire when she was shocked to see so much biofuel production. She reached for her pen and sent us this:

The Rape of Shallot
(apologies to Tennyson)

On either side the roadways lie
Fields of miscanthus and of rape
That sting the eye, bring on the coughs
And lots of lolly for the toffs.
And by the fields the road runs by
To concrete towered Camelot.
And up and down the lorries go
While people stand with cries of woe,
Without a damned shallot.

We left the crops, we left the grass.
We watched the trees and bird life pass.
We saw the helmets through the gloom
As we searched on for Camelot.
Out flew the life of sea and tide.
The world had cracked from side to side.
‘The curse has come upon us’ cried the people of Shallot.

Labels: tennyson