Produced by Blue Trumpet for Radio 2RRR, Jove’s Pearls is a collection of verse 'chiefly in the Australian vernacular' by Jovial Mark ... painter, poet, dilettante, and ratbag, hailing from the deep south of South Australia...
The poem...
The old revolutionary came to our town
Telling tales of Lenin
Said he loathed the Menshevik scum
And the followers of Bakunin
He helped collectivise agriculture
And disposess the Kulaks
Told us he’d laughed both long and hard
When he packed them off to the Gulags
He shot their cows in proletarian rage
And poured the milk down the drain
Nothing to taint the purity
Of Marx and all his train
He cheered at the death of the Hitlerite faction
Loved Stalin, that man of action
But he cried a world of bitter tears
When he heard of the death of Gagarin
But as the evening wound its way on
The local crowd grew restless
He was singing them a evil song
And the old man’s words were breathless
We were all good democratic folk
And hated what had come to pass
So we grabbed the fellow by the scruff of the neck
And kicked him out on his arse!
Music...
Music featured in the poem comes from 'сереньёвый туман'.
Credits...
Produced by Blue Trumpet for Radio 2RRR
Original verse by Jovial Mark
Adapted for radio by James Benn
With special thanks to Johnny Boxer
Poems interpreted by…
- Johnny Boxer
- James Benn
Introductions and credits by Amie Maguire