(I can't write tonight because I am silenced by sadness. This is my
awkward attempt.)
I could hide in the exultant cricket news
of the Aussie win over the Kiwis
I could lose myself in the cool eyes
of my stuffed camel from Broome
Or Bernstein's 'Poetics' and
Peter Ciccariello's 'Uncommon Vision'
I could hide, yes, I could
run away from Bad News
but I can't
I can't stop howling
at the Judge who let ten rapists go free
and the Prosecutor who said
they were 'naughty' for
gang-banging a ten year old girl.
Ten years old.
Some blame it on their culture,
they say it was
youthful experimentation
but it damns them all, it
damns Queensland's legal system,
it damns Australia, it damns
me, impotent on
the other side of this sunburnt country
where the 'silly season'
and credit card spending will
knock such stories off
the TV news, off the front pages
unless I howl a lot louder,
unless _we_ howl a lot longer,
unless I stand up for
the human rights of
ALL people in Australia,
the weak and misguided,
the sick and the lame,
the defenceless children ...
Hide, my little black charges,
hide in the bushes
in the dry creek beds,
hide until
Justice overwhelms Law
in this primitive land
where today's Dreaming
is Nightmare.
--
Andrew
http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aburke/
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