Poem: Necrojustice

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

From GLW issue 241