Madagascar Poem by Douglas Scotney

With only a seventh of it lying below the Tropic
and a population pretty much that of Taiwan,
North Korea, Cameroon, Ghana,
Angola, Yemen and Australia,
beside its big neighbour
it looks smaller than it is.

Its length, the crow-flies distance
between Adelaide and Brisbane,
it is three-fifths the size of South Australia.
It's a bit bigger than Botswana
and more of a bit bigger than France.
It's not quite as big as Ukraine.
It is considerably larger than Spain.

It is 587 to France's 552.
Two would fit into South Africa
with a bit left over.
Nine Lithuanias would fit into it,
as would seventeen nations
that are the size of Moldova.