It is a mystery
as deep as the Indian Ocean
that washes the
Western shores
and as murky as
a winter’s day on
Tassie’s shores.
This mystery,
so chiseled by history,
and by this grand inexorable land,
is why we are who we are
as Australians,
as Aussies that eat Vegemite
and sup on multicultural food.
So different, yes,
and blended like
oil with water,
worlds apart,
not without strains and stains,
but a world together,
one but many.
And we dwell in this
living place of contrasts
that should divide us
but somehow in
this mystery of us
we find a way of being together.
In this lucky country
(as some have called it),
our land invites the smoke of fire
and the flood that wipes the land clean,
and in this deadly struggle,
near and far, close and urgent,
we find our nation’s soul renewed.
This is the mystery
in which we live proud
but cautious,
and filled, at the same time,
with shame worn from a past
that we may want to forget
but cannot.
3/9/2017