Jabiluka Blockade

Jabiluka Blockade

In peace we coloured the camping ground
in harmony we moved boldly on the tar.
In dust and warm dry air we cared for our selves,
in horror we looked on those faces of scorn
Sun shaded blind eyed, stick figures of the long arm.

Why do the brown identities of hot police
sternly, they believe,
robotly undertake the agency of smug oppression?

You'd heap the sneer upon the beauties
of a massive landscape,
Dive your vicious hands into the heated rock
Scour and bleach the warm green textures of the trees
Drain the chocolate flavoured sand
of the safety margin
which keeps us all
upon this derelict earth of dinosaurs
from further toxic harm.

We crossed the very pass between
your force and piety of law.
A youngster's trembling hand spoke falsely of arrest.

Fran McIlroy

From GLW issue 328