It is easy to forget that 

this land was once colonies

of an Empire that stretched

its ravenous claws across 

the globe, and spread its

culture of language, dress,

church, sport and manners

from the east, to the south,

to the west, continent to

continent, from old world

to the vastness of the new.

 

It is hard to remember the

Nations that were subjects of

this swarm and succumbed

to the mighty claws that claimed

everything from the height

and vision of god’s own 

people, who had a right (they say) 

to come and do his will and 

create a new land that had, it seems,

so little of the ancient truth.

 

But now, as Empire has gone,

and with it the talons of culture

that once dug so deep and made

these intimate scars that cannot fade,

there is the chance to find anew

what was hidden from the heights 

of the white world view  and to 

see the richness of the many ways 

that once were savaged and left

to die across this land that was

Country but are rising up again

from the ashes of distant fires

and from the spirit of modern pride.

 

9/1/2019