Necrojustice

we who lop tall poppies -- mate
covet justice and won't relent
but daily strive to compensate
voiceless victims long since sent
from this weeping vale of submissions
reports and appeals and Royal Commissions

no statute could ever limit
the retrospective moral qualms
we feel for Mabo and his kin
dispossessed of their isle of palms
and the rest of the litany
ranging Maralinga to Wittenoom
it's a ledger of some infamy
sailors in their Voyager tomb
the Hilton blasted -- oh! soon! soon!
but we have recognised the plight
of those on whom the Orange fell
and can you doubt that with hindsight
at the care of orphans we excel?

thus we earn a reputation
for timely originality
but what we've done is exchange
a cringe based on geography
for one that employs
the existential concept of dimension
for clearly what we have
invented and driven to perfection
the one trait that indelibly marks us
is a national will for necrojustice

Tony Smith

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