I’m an angry aboriginal
And
Why not?
Whites did intrude
Back then
Much to my chagrin
And
In return they offered me slavery
Some sugar
Flour and tea
And took away my children
Despite an Elders desperate plea
They raped my girls
As rifles stared me down
Better than a spear could do
To kill
Soldiers all around
The kids never seen
Tribal days
Aboriginal ways
Never learnt to be black
And the children were afflicted
With an unexplained blight
Forced to live a life of wondering
Were they black or were they white

Paddy I love this street
This vision
This place built on gold
For
Aristocrats
And ordinary folk
The
Majestic buildings
A broad avenue
Built from gold
The wealth of gold
From
The toil of blacks
And whites
A gold place
Where blacks roamed
And whites owned
The history
The style
The romance
And the while
All built on gold
Where blacks roamed
Once as owners
Once as happy people

His last government dollar
And
He takes on the world
The Whiteman’s world
Of
Flashing lights
Crazy
Jackpots that sing
Fraudulent
Bells and whistles
And
A millionaire Whiteman’s
Bullshit promise
Of riches
Seduced by flashing lights
Only mindless damage
For Jacky
And his black roots
Sadly now
He looks at me with
A face that says
I’m done
I’m surely done
My elder’s way was a better way
Better than
Filthy lucre
Beer and Glue
Petrol and Handouts
Money and Starving kids
Sick kids
Uneducated kids
An angry wife
No job
No self esteem
And the marijuana he smoked yesterday
Would not
Be his last
As
Somewhere in life
Luck slipped him by
But at least he would live
To do it all again
On another government payday
Another marvellous “joint” venture

Sweet virgin Gin
Barely of womanhood
Raped
Scarred, scared

The threat of death
Oft
Beckoning

So many times

The blade
The musket
The phallic dreaming
Of
A dirty sailor’s whim
Some bloody Englishman’s fancy

White bastard in every way
Abandoned
Blue eyed black children

A seaman’s right
The Captain said
A comfortable bed
Always

A young woman’s dread
For those black skinned

Damned Endeavour
Damned invaders
Damned white bastards

And a spear for Cook
So just it seems
Almost
A sweet Gin’s revenge

We will not be back
except in spirit
In dreaming
There is a stranger on our sea
Handing brothers
To our land
Our earth
Mr Cook
Spilling white men to our beach
And there goes our full blood
Forever
We will not be back
except in spirit
In dreaming

And the bottles keep breaking
Scattered glass
And an aboriginal respect of the land
Abandoned
And your men making excuses
Educational
And a strange love of white demons
Never refused
And your pride keeps on breaking
About Cook and his mob
And a new white man is coming for you
To help you
And you need to stand up
If only to have a go
And live in a Whiteman’s world
That is also your own

A little black girl approaches
Skinny fingers running along corrugated tin walls
Bare footed
Kicking an empty cigarette packet
Along the old boarded veranda
Her eyes like flickering candle flames
Trying to avoid contact with him
He is someone
Tribally
Beyond reproach
Whilst her stomach bulges with his last effort at love
His last great promise to her
That his lust would lead to marriage
Indecent currency out here
It seems
For a little black princess
And she cries for the child
He has abandoned
At sixteen she tried mature conversation
A wasted time
An optimistic love
He just smiled and walked away
A wry smile
And another aboriginal child
Thrives on the mercy of luck
And she still kicks the cigarette packet
Bare footed
Along the boarded veranda
And disappears

Me little mate was weeping from one eye
Cleaned by a swift lift of the wrist
At rapid intervals
And his nose ran persistently to his lips
The discharge disappearing with one big swipe of that tongue
At rapid intervals
This beautiful young child seemed so un-bothered
And at least one eye was bright
Just like his beautiful young mind
You know he just smiled and smiled for me
At rapid intervals
And talked better than a budgie
At rapid intervals
He never knew he was un-well
He never knew that his eye had an infection
And he never knew
Of the blindness to come
And the young death of beautiful aboriginals
At rapid intervals

She’s my beautiful mother
He is as black as
The aces
Yet a diamond is within his soul
Wrinkled like an old card
That’s played a thousand hands
He’s
Weathered with life
And a leathery skin
Experience that must be trusted
And loved so much
For the life it’s seen
An unsung hero
To take us on
A bunch of white kids
Ratbags all of us
And
In this racist society
He’ll risk it all
For my dear Ma
Their only crime is one of loving
Of
Happiness
Of
Hope
My white father beat her so often
You’d thought
For the most part
She was black anyway
And he
Strokes her pretty face gently
Often
And I cry
I cry for my mother
And her new chance at love
With her Koori fellow
And I cry for my new dad
As I feel aborigine

From
Whiteman’s animal’s hooved
From
Sheep and cattle tracks
Compacted and grooved
And
Land that disappeared
In a sea of death
Like a cancer
Under red tile houses rooved
A pretty flower died that day
And
On offer
A koori’s hunger was never soothed
From tasty tubers