This is the day of Mourning,
for Dreamtime and Country
and all that was Lost and STOLEN
and still needs to be found in this
searching for our national Soul.

This is the day when Empire
took the Empty Land that
was filled with Connection
and dumped the invisible contents roughly
at the Fringes far from the FLAG.

This is a day of FORGETTING History,
and avoiding the stinking carcass of our national SHAME,
and only remembering the smiling sweet, feel good,
stories of unified Australia as the Great South Land
of opportunity, tolerance, freedom and national PRIDE.

This is the day of Genocide and Destruction,
the beginning of a reign of unrelenting Terror
whose blood streaked chilling echo is still not heard
above the din of Populism and Jingoism,
and the Rhetoric that tells us, through stirring speeches and songs,
that we are happy, we are great, and we are doing okay.

Yes, this is a day of Mourning,
and I will hold my head down low (not high),
and I will cover my head with the ashes
of the fires that no longer glow.

And on this day I will Listen in the Silence
for the CRIES from Past and Now that still
echo with conviction across this
great expanse of Treasure that
we Took but never Bought.

25/1/2018