POEM: Together we must

Together we must

 

HE was three years old

You killed him

And 50 others

Not in Christ's church

But a mosque

To save your blindness

Your fake whiteness

Not mine, yours,

YOURS

 

Inspired by the politicians

Who run Manus and Nauru

Concentration camps

Inspired by their hate press

Where Muslims are the whistled dog

Of Immigration, and race

And colonial settlers

 

And the lumpen proles

Who make up part of our nation

While they are One

We are united

We stand

Against the claxons of evil

Their hate, their fear, their lies

 

The Nazi enablers give them life

Give them reason

And reasons

Enough you evil bastards

No more games

Bring the refugees here

Welcome them

 

If you will not

We will,

Reclaim humanity

To be free

We will smash you

Grind you into the dust of history

Again

 

Conservatives, reactionaries, fascists

Your racist sewer survives

Thrives upon hating

The eternal other

Our Aboriginal brothers

And sisters

 

And the recent other

Jew, Muslim, African

Remember the gangs?

More lies to inspire hate, and votes

Our tree of life thrives on stolen land

We keep from the non-white man

And woman

 

The Muslim woman wails

Her husband is dead

Killed by the words

Of the media and the racists

Who inhabit high office

And the bullets of the followers

 

Not us, the mighty scream

As their words weasel out

And softly megaphone the hate

Enough! No more!

Stop these bastards now

The mass of us,

Together, we can

 

The time for tears

Has come

Where theirs drown ours

Disempower the haters

Empower ourselves

 

Black, white, yellow, brown

Muslim, Christian, Jew,

Buddhist, Hindu

And no religion too

Together, against their rotten system

Of racism, murder, war

Making us poor

 

Together, we can

Together, we must

You can follow Canberra correspondent John Passant on Twitter @JohnPassant. Signed copies of John's newly released second book of poetry, 'Whose Broken is this? and other poems', are available for purchase from the IA store HERE.