POLITICS, POETRY & SATIRE
Julia sharpened knitting needles
prepared for spill of blood,
around Australia we all waited
would there be another PM Rudd?
At last Bill Shorten swings
manouevring for another day
he’s waiting quietly in the wings
for when a chance comes into play.
All hail our leader, Kevvie’s back,
Out with Conroy, Howes and Swan,
But can he get the show on track?
much easier when the Right is gone.
Yet refugees still feel the pain
whichever candidate remains.
26 June 2013
I don’t want your chemtrails, 9/11 truth, wild theory fails
I can’t bear your bleating on of Haarp and reptile aliens.
I don’t want your nazi rants, your racism, your hate slants
I can’t stand your barking about Jewishness and eugenics,
I don’t like your Vets Today, your PressTV, your Daily Mail
Just shove it where the sun don’t shine, get an education,
I won’t embrace your Rothschild crap, your protocols, your sleazy trap,
I don’t want your Facebook spew, your conspiracies are dog do do.
Jinjirrie
June 2013
Dethrone cruel elites
Challenge their deceits
With the sole conspiracy
Uncompromising solidarity
Rejecting prejudice
Is easy with more practice
Refuse racist division
Real justice is the vision.
Jinjirrie
June 2013
NB, NSA, please read my poetry.
I smell the fear on your vinyl briefcase
as across the table like Captain Cook
you pity the poor natives.
Your backdoor agenda and verbal pyrotechnology’s
a front for the urgency to move onto lunch,
the bottom line, where you will be free
of the irritation of our disagreement.
Snake on a ladder, you have all the answers
before the questions are put, and if I resist
and say ‘what about this?’ I’ll be hived off.
You want your lunch and I have a hunch
you’ll have your way no matter what I say,
top down, bottoms up.
I’m not here for a handout, just some of our taxes back.
You have your priorities sent down the line
(I’ll scratch your back if you stab mine),
keeping the upper hand for the mortgage’s sake,
your PS perks and old boy lurks building
a superstructure of barbies and kids on Sunday
with the Director and the man on the next rung,
top down, bottoms up,
drinking and laughing about idealists
who’d like to step over your head.
I wonder if you hear us at all,
while unseen in the community
quiet synergy turns the wheels eventually,
bottoms up.
Jinjirrie 1993
Oh, I cried at Sabra and Shatila,
The tears ran down my spine,
And I cried when Rabin was gunned down,
As though I’d lost a father of mine.
But I don’t sympathise with Zoabi,
Her antics just cross every line.
So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal.
I love Ray Hanania and J-Street,
Their message of peace speaks to me,
I curse Lieberman and Netanyahu,
For their counterproductivity.
But don’t talk to me ’bout apartheid,
It’s so complicated, you see.
So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal.
I remember the spirit of Oslo,
My faith in the process restored.
I had hoped that the Palestinians,
Would renounce all that I had deplored.
But no, they crap on ’bout “oppression” –
It’s not about whose ox was gored!
So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal.
I cheered for Obama in Cairo,
I know that he’ll soon turn the tide;
His call for a two-state solution,
Just makes my eyes well up with pride.
He knows that we must change the discourse,
There’s just too much hate on both sides.
So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal.
The ideological settlers –
It seems nothing will give them pause.
I can’t understand how their minds work:
They need to read Grossman and Oz.
But until the Pallies find Gandhi,
You won’t find me joining their cause,
So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal.
These boycotts, divestments, and sanctions,
Do not help the cause of peace.
Can’t you see that the two warring factions
Need dialogue and not thought police.
By the way, did you know that Barghouti,
Goes to uni in Tel Aviv?
So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal.
There was a time I thought quite diff’rent,
I freely admit it, you see.
I bought a book by Lenni Brenner,
And once I defended Chomsky!
But now I’m much older and wiser,
And I hope, one day, you, too, will be-
So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal.
Adapted from Phil Ochs, Love me I’m a Liberal by Elise Hendrick and republished from her blog.
may our love never become bad poetry
jolting and crashing in verse
dactylic vaulting
jarring and halting
prosaic metre, catastrophic
pompous self-indulgent girth
striving to fit another
neologism into ironic mirth
reading Burns by turns on the verandah
is a small happiness,
antidote to overwrought malignancy
the saccharine lies of romance
when it’s quiet meaning
behind our leaning day on day
together in our private dance.
Valentine’s Day 2013
If you honour my requests,
we may live together –
my own room,
a balloon to carry my dreams,
to play my piano when I choose,
wrong notes and all,
no criticisms of my lousy housework.
an occasional neck massage
gratefully returned,
no ifs or buts,
let me float above the abyss
courting perilous risks
a free return ticket
travelling alone if I wish
entrusting you with my paradox.
