Tiwi People
Swaggy Gamble …
Larrakia
One Night in Darwin
The Rock
Poor Aussie Boy
Summer Venicea
… a hothouse
frozen in time
then suspended
in a saltwater museum
The despised tourists
on the dock
by the boatload
disgorging
Then to queue
for religious relics
and pay 5 euros
just to see them
Once they would’ve all
been led for free
and fed into the Colosseum
Like foreigners
who walk around
saying … “Gidday!”
Barbarians well known
to pisciare in the bidet
Sailing High in Creation
Riding the bounds
Sailing high in creation
Things that astound
on the wing
in the deep
and under the ground
Yet consciousness
hard up against the glass
of this broken existence
Confiscated by the State
as a piece of degenerate art
then sold as a slave
to the black market of fate
I made the big break
for the heights of Montmartre
A spirited defence
yet only token the resistance
at the cutting edge
of forsaken circumstance
Justified and Ancient
A Distant Recollection
Once upon a time
loving kindness
that orphaned daughter
of some forgotten martyr
from a far off constellation
just waiting to happen …
Once drifting so fine
in my distant recollection
a brother lost
distracted by an attraction
to the stranger of danger
and the mother of all crime
Becoming a pawn
in that never ending
murderous game
of worldly power
and territorial gain
the soldier of misfortune
now marching to the tune
of a traumatized mind
On the dirty street corner
sprawled upon yesterday’s paper
used and discarded
“Can you spare a dime?”
scrawled on a sign
The whole Earth is our father’s land
Loving Kindness … once upon a time
Words and Image;
~ David B Redpath © 2018
David Redpath 