Garden Musings

By | 1 November 2017

1. 
his racism compels an energy that grows me 
a garden his Team Australia digs 
my shovel deeper his Northern Territory 
Intervention layers my compost-pile higher his 
Operation Sovereign Borders pulls my 
noxious-weeds faster his Forced Closure of 
Remote Aboriginal Communities renders my 
pruning-saw blunt and his Climate- 
Change Denial distils my rage to 
sweat drip soak feed every seed sown 
for transformation.

2. 
my daughter makes potions from this 
garden she slices lemons with oyster-shells soaks 
violets herbs and curry leaves with eucalyptus- 
blossom a cultural-fusion concentration brews 
her tea-pot and a big sky-full of love and 
glitter swills her offerings I recite queer 
and decolonisation-poetry to my children in this 
garden resistance-poets agitate the soil their 
words germinate uprisings on the freesia-scent 
of spring every new bud tells a survival story we 
raise our potion-filled tea-cups to the sun to 
thank them.

3. 
Dear Prime Minister your leadership ignites 
alchemy in this garden making rich 
soil brewing potions and shaping little 
activists who harvest sweet-offerings to counter 
the bitter after-taste of you remember 
this we are your deepest roots your 
legacy we won’t cultivate fear and 
bigotry we will blister our hands sow seeds of 
hope and tear down your white-picket-fence 
borders we will light our fires to sit around share 
food sing to our Old Ones we will 
pollinate humanity with rainbows on every 
horizon under a float of red-black- 
yellow this our every garden. 


Originally published Wasafiri, International Contemporary Writing, Vol. 31, No. 2, June 2016, p. 26.

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