News Today, The

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

author : Tony Birch


(i)
Arms of safety

come and anchor
your vessel of hope
at the line of wire

but do not speak
keep voices frozen
breath closed and fall

from southern skies
sun blessed and burnt
into the arms of nation


(ii)
At Curtain

asylum seekers strike
and hunger and wait
for signs of life

down south politicians
belch and remain
unmoved by stitched lips

with death a beat away
they rest content for
the evening’s entertainment


(iii)
Did we send a man to be shot?

shipped home alive
in a dead man’s box
a foreign body packaged

weighed and stamped
sent on his way sanctified
to sing his pain for tyrants

the minister purses lips
winks an eye and comments
‘it would be inappropriate to comment’


(iv)
Hope fades

hope fades for 200
or 220 or 250 or more
who went to the bottom

on the 24th of, or the 25th of
(or was it on the 26th )
when they slipped away?

the nation survives
a sinking wreck with
blindness our companion


(v)
Not our job

we fear them gone and
pray Amen in respect of
the missing in empty waters

we cannot search
we cannot save
the lost of no-man’s sea

they lay their bodies
beyond the borders of
‘definitions of responsibility’


(vi)
women and children

the minister’s spokeswoman
is considering a statement
in consideration of etc.

the situation of said abuse
of women and children
wrapped in rusting wire

on behalf of the minister
the spokeswoman progresses
to a state of consideration


(vii)
Another 113

there are another 113
800 kms off the coast
to the west of us

there are 113 to the north
113 dropping from the sky
and 113 tunnelling in

21 children 54 women
and 38 emaciated men
are preparing to attack


(viii)
18 months is a life sentence

born into detention
and walled into place
the newborn of ACM

hidden from light
and the unlocked
voice of freedom

we circle diligently
in a frantic escape
of our detention


(ix)
Death was not suspicious

witnesses have stated
on a mounting stack
of Holy Bibles

‘death was not suspicious’
when a man of love
climbed the wall

fell with grief
on fractured dreams
a tortured heart


(x)
Illegal migrants boom racket

precious cargo
boxed and trucked
in the bowels

with their labour intact
and bodies available
for your work and pleasure

the world of the third -
packaged and delivered
spare-change gift to the west


(xi)
Refugee stories seldom stand up

we do not detect
the scars on your back
terror in your eyes

we do not see
children weeping
limbs missing

do not speak
your journey’s story
we cannot hear you


(xii)
Grim message of life inside

“better to die proudly
than to live amongst
murderers of hope


all refugees here
will never forget
only the imprisoned

know how it feels
when a beaten soul
escapes to freedom”


were deemed to be
unlawfully in search
of an outcome of peace

Filed under : EDITION  -

ARCHIVES of July , 2005