I was born in a land, borne from a Dreamtime; a landscape of earthly parables; inhabited by mythical peoples and other-worldly creations… And this is my wonderland.
The cleanest land in the southern hemisphere… so cleansed, that only happy, intoxicated white people are celebrated on television… this is my wonderland?
I am free but have few democratic rights. I am the unforgiven scourge of the
Ruling Class; Welcome to Australia… this is my wonderland?
Christian soldiers arrived, invading, crusading, turning the terra-firma into a terror-infested, locked-down, maximum security destination… this is my wonderland?
The prison that now even keeps prisoners outside of its walls… asylum seekers in perpetual asylum…
As death-bird scream
And the Warden dictates,
Lights Out!
This is Australia…
It is surreal estate…
The forced closure of Indigenous communities…
The neo-genocide…
Lights Out!
This is my home…
I have been blinded by its beauty, but never to the horrors
of scorched earth.
This is my wonderland…
Addendum
Psalm 68:6
God provides homes for those who are the deserted. He leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious lived in a scorched land…
from Monster's Ink, IPSI Chapbook 3