The Democratic States of Poetry is a massive, cultured nation, remarkable for its national health service, public floggings, and ubiquitous missile silos. The compassionate, hard-working, cynical, cheerful population of 3.487 billion Poetryians are rabid consumers, partly through choice and partly because the government tells them to and dissenters tend to vanish from their homes at night.

The relatively small, corrupt, pro-business government is primarily concerned with Industry, with Defense, Welfare, and Healthcare also on the agenda. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 37.5%.

The frighteningly efficient Poetryian economy, worth 766 trillion francs a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Retail industry, with significant contributions from Soda Sales, Information Technology, and Gambling. Black market activity is rampant. Average income is an amazing 219,717 francs, but there is a vast disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 1,944,325 per year while the poor average 3,497, a ratio of 555 to 1.

Families are only permitted to have one child, hospitals in Poetry are too busy serving the needs of Poetry to see Poetryians, photos of picturesque coastal buildings are set against a backdrop of smokestacks and ship hulls, and sneezing pedestrians are grabbed by alley-lurking doctors. Crime, especially youth-related, is pervasive, with the police force struggling against a lack of funding and a high mortality rate. Poetry's national animal is the cobra, which is also the nation's favorite main course.

Poetry is ranked 291,051^st in the world and 168^th in Poetry for Lowest Crime Rates, with 23.76 law-abiding acts per hour.