842 - for peace

 

25.iv.22

842

3.115

for peace

remember them

 

The spirit of Australia, the spirit of our race, the spirit that has made free men, that has carved out the Empire and that alone can hold this country a White Australia and a free government. (Loud Cheers) ... If Britain wins and we stand with her, the White Australia policy is forever safe. (Applause.)

                                                                                                –  Billy Hughes

 

the last man

the last shilling

the limbless limping on

that little racist shit of a digger

 

and that death in custody

the billabong ghost singing

all join in

 

remember them

remember them all

 

bake the biscuit to send

 

up out of the trenches

the silence of a moment gone

kick the ball to Christmas

 

who?

and here’s the old owl dodging dawn

asks who

 

on the news this morning we hear

the demons are in a good place

 

it’s all these years later

 

a snare drum to the gallows all

march into the line of fire

 

and bravely!

 

let’s distract ourselves

with the hero thing

hand out some shiny and bright

 

let’s all sing

 

oh and a breakfast of gunfire

as sponsored by the makers

 

who?

 

VD and scar

my uncle said

 

see the trees down

and what if we lay to soil

what if the Earth defends?

 

who?

 

hearts given out to war are gone

say hate was not a part, but how?

 

some would not come back, some knew

 

it’s griefward all go

 

and holy now

holy

 

who shall we be?

 

blasphemy to question

 

who?

that owl again and gone

 

some nights we salute a bottle

everyone can swim

 

to serve like fools the silence

and vote for more of the same

 

the wrong wars and right lumped here

 

remember

a little thing these losses

against the greater theft

the centuries’ world war

 

for whom?

was all this in my name?

 

a war of skins some say

 

who? whose?

and will the wise tell?

 

call it the great game

 

see them march

prop up the bar

prosthetics – down the hatch!

 

call that the heat of the battle

little rapes to let off steam

 

some stood up for what they believe

and some got everything wrong

 

they don’t mean to glory

 

they were all too young

too young to know

 

names now to stone

 

they don’t mean to glory

they do

 

a trumpet for the walls come down

last shilling and last man

 

who?

 

for the sake of peace remember

build the monument by all means

 

and tell me – who shall we be?

 

who? who?

 

a war is where everyone loses

and so now all salute

don’t smile

it’s not a joke

 

but ghosts laugh round

these heads and tails

forever up in the air

 

whoever it is we’re yet to be

we still live in a stolen land