#1352 - RUOK Australia?

1352

14.ix.23

4.258

RUOK Australia?

for RUOK day

 

I’m reaching out

I’m checking in

 

Australia, I’m worried about you

it’s not just the polls

it’s facebook

it’s stuff people say on the street

it’s the trolling

the stuff they make up

 

your temperature’s too high, Australia

 

you seem to be giving into fear again

 

you’ve been listening to Mr Potato Head

and Pauline Hanson

 

that’s never gone well in the past

 

it seems like China wasn’t enough

this time it’s like you’re afraid of yourself

 

those thirty year nuclear subs

(might need them to get to work by then)

 

I can see it in a way, think of Ben Roberts-Smith

(man who can’t be defamed)… he is scary

 

think about DV – what you’re capable of

the gaslighting ‘what are they complaining about?’

 

RUOK Australia?

I think we need to tone things down

 

this lashing out

the city shootings are not good

 

you’ve got to stop pretending you can stop taking drugs

no one else has ever managed to

it just encourages nasty types

 

and the toxic bloom

and the reef blown

 

and blowing up ancient art in caves

just to get at some gas or some rocks

 

what were you thinking? RUOK?

 

it’s like you’ve been listening to Trump

we don’t need that here

 

it’s really important to tell the truth

we could make it a thing

we could call it truth telling

 

you’ve always been a bit of a risk taker

why so timid now?

 

you’ve been looking a bit beige around the gills again

white sliced

you’ve usually had a more varied complexion

I mean in recent years

 

it feels like reverted to something …

I don’t know … uglier, just recently

 

must be some bad influence

 

I know you’re scared

that’s the future for you

 

you’re still smoking too much

 

this anger?

doesn’t do you any favours

it’s as if you’ve been bitten by some hate bug

 

it’s like you feel like you did something bad to someone

you can’t quite remember

and now you’re blaming them

because they remind you of it

 

it doesn’t make sense, does it?

 

it’s like saying someone can’t have something

because they don’t have something

 

Australia RUOK?

nobody wants to take your backyard

 

they’d have to make endless trips to the tip

 

you’re looking guilty again

 

guilt’s no help to anyone now

but you can actually help

 

all you have to do is say RUOK?

that’s the spell!

but you have to mean it

and then you have to listen

 

try just to focus on the penalty shootout

and crashing first through the finishing ribbon

and the world’s best tennis player (now retired)

that’s us

that’s ancient talent there

 

think of that one legged bloke at Lake Mungo

20,000 years ago

tearing through the scrub after a wallaby

 

that’s us too

we’ve still got the footprint

 

you’ve just got to say ‘yes!’

and that’s us

 

think of the things that make you proud

art, music – I mean the new stuff

what people are doing right now

 

lots of good things are happening

but there’s lots of stuff to fix

 

I don’t know if you’ve noticed how many people your coal is killing

how many creatures

you’re leading the world in extinctions

 

R they OK? the koalas and friends?

 

RUOK?

it doesn’t look good

 

you’d better stop cutting down all those trees

otherwise, no gumleaves

 

it’s not rocket science, as they say

it’s more important than that

 

are you listening?

 

Australia!  RUOK?

you seem to be glazing over

 

you’ve got to get yourself by the short and curlies

pull yourself up by the bootstraps

be reasonable!

 

no one’s impressed with your recent behaviour

you can nip this in the bud

 

here come and lie down on my couch

I think you’re afraid of your deep down self

 

the place is pretty comfortable, generally

wouldn’t you say?

I mean if there’s a roof over your head

 

I mean floods and fires aside

and the wind sometimes

then there’s the rent and the cost of living

 

shall we reflect on past performance?

 

try to think back to your childhood

 

it really was a different climate

 

Australia – can you hear yourself?

 

if you’re very very quiet

you might just hear yourself think

 

but listen harder

under that

you’ll hear just … your…  heart

it’s a kind of music

and you can go deeper too

hear the land

 

let country in

 

then you could belong

 

you’d be welcome

 

Australia – RUOK?

 

wake up

it’s okay to be woke

 

the thing about meditation is

you’ve got to try to not fall asleep

 

Australia – I’m trying to have a conversation with you

this is the story of my life

 

can you hear me?

are you listening

RUOK?