Sunday Whirl (Wordle #145) presents a list of words
that we must incorporate in a writing piece.
The words this week are:
country, (facilitate), aspect, sent, strands, state,
sustain, write, time, plans, embrace, juggling
In my previous post I dealt with the word ‘facilitate’,
So it is excluded from this post.
Concentrating the Mind
Writing on a Wrong - Australia Day 2014
Before we start I would like to pay homage
to the traditional owners of the land:
Pseudocheirus peregrinus.
Thank you.
This country has,
Over time,
Embraced visitors
From everywhere.
Granted, it has not always been smooth
Some jostling,
Some juggling,
But each arrival
Has added new strands
To the tapestry that is us today.
We are a symphony,
Not a solo.
So how do we explain
The nastiness,
The callousness,
Of our elected government?
The state has become
The champion
Of fear, of hatred,
Of cynical disregard
Of pain and suffering.
Desperate people
Are sent away,
Forced away,
Locked away
Rot away,
Mentally decay,
Everyday.
When the public accept
This behavior,
They sustain it,
Normalise it.
But if this aspect
Of government behavior,
Cruelty and disdain,
Becomes normal,
What other plans do they have?
What incremental steps,
Will we see next?
Are you safe?
.
---
© J Cosmo Newbery 2014
---
A chilling indictment, the form of the poem accentuates the horrors.
ReplyDeleteBTW did you mean "disdain" in the final stanza?
Yep. Fixed. Thanks.
DeleteWow - beautifully written, socially active and thought provoking - what more could one ask?
ReplyDeletethat final question - leaves me a little uneasy!
ReplyDeleteA thoughtful write..I saw in my diary that holocaust remembrance day and Australia Day were the same date..Immigration is a similar issue here..taken to its conclusion perhaps nobody is safe..
ReplyDeleteyou hit the mark with this... those questions stated have been surfacing in the back of my mind...
ReplyDeleteWow! so glad you got 'facilitate' out of your system so you could pen this one! Strong, honest, provocative! What more can I ask of a poem on a Sunday morning with a pile of depressingly familiar newspapers staring me in the face!!
ReplyDeleteI most love that you paid respect to the traditional owners of the land. Though aborigines do not believe in possessing land, they do know how to live on it and with it. I love your speaking out. Many more of us need to do the same. All over this planet.
ReplyDeletethat old R.E.M. song, it's the end of the world as we know it (and i feel fine) - except for that bit in the italics. the cabal continues ~
ReplyDeleteand now we have Agenda 21 to worry about!
ReplyDeleteIt's the same question (or set of question) that we are asking now in Canada. Things are not looking good.
ReplyDeleteSobering piece. Well done.
ReplyDeleteYou make some good observations in this piece, but it's the questions you pose that hammers the message home. Great food for thought here!
ReplyDeleteWell stated! And no, I don't think we are safe.
ReplyDelete(did you have a touch of the Dame Edna's with your intro?) :)
Fear breeds fear, hatred breeds hatred........... love also breeds love, so there is hope as long as the mouse roars and ears around the world hear.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. But it is hard not to be discouraged at times.
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