h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Paul.
Sorry to intrude - our paths have crossed (amicably, I hope) off and on, mostly to do with poetry.

I loved your poem 'Donkeys' and have taken the liberty of adapting it slightly to suit my own ends which is a story about a (my) donkey and the plight of donkeys' in Morocco generally. I re-wrote it as follows:

Donkeys
(re-written from someone originally written by Paul H)

Two indolent moudmeens, their time they would pass.
By debating the difference 'twixt donkey and ass.
Til a mendicant sage said, "Just bear this in mind.
An ass is a donkey - who's a little behind."

(moudmeen – Moroccan for someone who is permanently high on kif)

Would you have any objections to my using it - with acknowledgements, of course.

Sounds good.

Your version is very good indeed.

What is the plight of donkeys in Morocco?

Thank you. But the crunch lines "twxt donkey and ass" and the last one, are yours and brilliant.

'The life of a Moroccan donkey' is used as a synonym for 'heel on earth'.
from the first chahter:

Goddamit - this is Morocco, where the animals are regarded as a necessary inconvenience and family expense. Here they are worked, beaten - or more usually both – and starved to death, long before their allotted lifespan. Here they don’t even have the heart to dispose of animals that are past their sell-by date as the do in the Sierra Nevada in southern Spain. There the much loved donkey - when it comes to the end of its working life - and would be an absurd and unwarranted expense to maintain in retirement - is consigned to God by being pushed off a cliff, on the basis of; ‘it was fine when it left my hands’. Mind you – there are no cliffs in this part of Morocco, which might explain it.

It will be published (I think) in parts, in The Post, so you can read it all there - or - if you send me an e-mail to [email protected] I will send you a copy, when I have finished it.

I'll be keeping an eye out for it, then.