The land is blessed
with wide open spaces
human kangaroos
buffoons, emus
bandicoots, galahs
and squawking coackatoos.
An imitation nation
creatively inept
vacuously homophobic
and racist
laconic and patronising
governed by sleazy politicians
solipsistic and sycophantic
deal makers
and opportunists
full of artifice and guile
without principles
policies or vision.
A nation obsessed
by sport
its iconic heroes
hard men
built like bulls
muscular metronomes
with fur-lined armpits
and iron balls.
Nothing flourishes
in a desert of fairy floss
on the TV screen
presented unctuously and loudly
with fake emotions
grimaces
and gesticulations
to viewers
complacent as cows.
The Anzac tradition
recurs annually
celebrating nightmares
of soldiers dying
for politicians
in Vietnam, Iraq
and Afghanistan.
Our craven government
looked away
when the Indonesian army
invaded East Timor
and casually murdered
Australian Journalists
at Balibo.
For twenty five years
of oppression
and genocide
successive
Australian governments
feted a monster in Jakarta
while foreign ministers
Ali Alitas
and Gareth Evans
toasted each other
in champagne
on an aeroplane.
The first Australians
live and die in squalor
from degradation and decay
because
of government incompetence
and inertia.
Behind the scenes
extremists
employ shock jocks
and deniers
as propaganda proxies
to distort the truth
vilify and defame
in the name
of free speech.
At schools
our children are taught
to memorise
the NAPLAN way
imported from the USA
and learn to be proud
and patriotic
every Anzac Day.
Governments
keep the truth at bay
by immortalising myths
of heroism
and sacrifice
while scurrying backwards
the traditional
hypocritical
Australian way.
Extremely powerful writing Ken on subjects of the heart. Wonderful work that sends shivers “At schools the children are taught to memorise the Naplan way imported from the US of A” and images of Phan Thị Kim when she was nine burnt by the madness at Trang Bang
Right Jack. From the heart! Difficult to write. I’ve been playing with the theme for quite a while, but couldn’t seem to break away from a from a ponderous political tract, until the last few days. As Hemingway used to say, it has to be the truth, or words to that effect.
Ken… This is so mindblowingly spot on.. I cannot claim to be up with all of the politics of the UK let alone Australia but there (as ever seems to be too many similarities) I literally have just woken to a read which has pulled me out of my smug little comfort zone of personal trials and made me sit up and think.., cheers ken.
Well Karen, I finally found a title. The poem was cathartic, and I hope it will release a few demons. I think politics in the UK the US and in Australia are much the same, full of hypocrisy and cant, and lots of lies. One could believe in past leaders like Churchill and Roosevelt (is that the right spelling?) and our Curtin and Chifley, but they have been all been replaced by untrustworthy power hungry af self servers, no longer serving their constituents. And elsewhere, In South africa for instance, leaders like Mandela are history. Why, I wish I knew!
Thanks for your great review.
Good writing (for me) needs to be honest and raw.. this piece is all that and more.. It does seem no matter we are on this globe, the atrocities are similar..
Well done, Ken!!
Thanks. From Three Penny Press, that’s
praise I value.
they always take the indigenous language and indoctrinate the children.. one holocaust after another.. awesome piece Ken!
Thanks again Katherine. I finally finished a piece I worried over. that always seemed
to look like political tract. Somehow I managed
it. I guess the passion and hatred helped.
What an emotive read. Well written.
I met my partner in Aus a zillion years ago (he’s British before you ask), so I’ve learned a bit about Aus over the years. He was obsessed with some ghastly political/folk/rock group called Redgum, I guess you know them. (I like them now). Your sentiments reminded me of some of the ones in their songs so many years ago. Nothing changes. Sadly.
Thanks. I have never heard of Redgum, thank God. In fact I know nothing much about rock groups, except that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards seem to be still perfoming – somehow. Surely they are embalmed by now, and have been reanimated as zombies!
human beings can be such hypocrites.
It’s not easy to damn your country of birth,
but does it really matter where you’re born?
If your countrymen are hypocrites, why not say so and stop pretending they are what they are led to believe?
I really like your blog.. very nice colors & theme. Did you make this website yourself or did you hire someone to do it for you? Plz answer back as I’m looking to construct my own blog and would like to find out where u got this from. kudos
I made it from what is available on site. You can select your own backing from a large selection online, here, at WordPress.