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