{"id":79439,"date":"2026-03-23T08:16:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T11:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jornalrol.com.br\/?p=79439"},"modified":"2026-03-22T19:34:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T22:34:48","slug":"season-of-the-cane-toad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jornalrol.com.br\/?p=79439","title":{"rendered":"Season of the cane toad"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jane Nash: ‘Season of the cane toad’

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\"Jane
Jane Nash<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Imagem gerada pelo ChatGPT – https:\/\/chatgpt.com\/c\/69c06bf5-03e0-83e9-972b-dd535b74cb64<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I\u2019m sanitising the sideboard where I lay my paper down
I\u2019m bleaching the steps at the front and back doors
I\u2019ve got bottles of disinfectant ready for murder, if I must
I\u2019m keeping a squeaky clean house because it\u2019s the Season of the Cane Toad<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I take my dog\u2019s temperature each time it comes indoors from playing
Just in case, I run random blood tests on the cats in the neighbourhood
They\u2019re quite put out but who takes much notice of a whining cat?
Only dogs who aren\u2019t too tired to chase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s their refusal to back down, sitting there
with that hang dog expression upon their already thinned lips that shits me
Bloated, up to a ruler length, they swarm the fields, the streets, the outsides of chip-shops
and pizza-joints, the back exits of hospitals, the exhaust-pipes of trucks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Never seen a cane toad in a cane field yet.
No matter how hard I try to keep the place clean, another one will pop up,
usually in a shady corner I\u2019ve forgotten or missed.
The pacifist in me disappears and I am hell bent on their destruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where do they go off season?
Do they all vacation at another location?
Were they just temporarily camouflaged, or were they being
Rendered by some invisible string theory?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s been a long toad season,
And the poison is an ever bitter bite to taste
Thought they would go when the rains failed
But they stayed, and grew fatter in secret.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently I\u2019ve seen reports on the news
that every country now has toads
Foreign travel has been banned
But I’m not sure whether it\u2019s for them or us?<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Jane Nash<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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JaneNash.com<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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I\u2019m sanitising the sideboard where I lay my paper down I\u2019m bleaching the steps at the front and back doors. I\u2019ve got bottles of disinfectant ready for murder…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":79441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9285,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-literatura","category-poesias"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t