Dear brother on the Birrarung,

Thank you for welcoming us

On your country

For sharing your sweet water

Fertile soil and abundant sea

We ask your forgiveness

For our thirst remains unquenched

Our bellies bloated like empty drums

Our hearts besieged by nightmares

By salt riddled eyes

In rag tents
My brother in grief not in blood

Genocide stretches its long shadow

Connecting yours to mine’s sorrow

Across green fields

And over mountain peaks

Along billabongs

The memory mourns

And the soul yearns

For our lost ones

A knock on the coffin

Will not awaken those departed
My brother in dread

There are no coffins in Gaza

No privacy for the dead

Only scattered remains

Begging to be found

Pulled from beneath the rubble

Dug from crowded mass graves

From scorched earth and pillaged homes

Rescued from the jaws

Of hungry dogs in the streets

So far from here is that land

my brother

Yet

So near
My brother in pain

Listen

Your heart and mine pound

To that same rhythm

Traversing through Dreamtime

Wrapping song lines in Jasmine vines

And lemon blossoms

Resurrecting ancient tribes

And ways of lives

Never forgotten

Hovering over birthing trees

Running with the departed

Along the green banks of the Birrarung Billabong

And the sandy shores of the Gaza sea

Holding hands

Skipping waves

Subsisting on memories
How do we undie our loved ones?

How do we unbomb universities and hospitals?

How do we unmassacre the innocent?

How do we undo

What power, hate and greed has done?

I wish I could collect the ashes of our home

And build again the walls

That witnessed our stories

I wish I could un-erase

The features of our city 
My brother in humanity

Let us hold on to one another

Together we affirm:

There is no way but tomorrow

And tomorrow will soon be here

And I will welcome you to mine

My country

I will make a scarf for you

Cross-stitched with tatreeze

And you will teach me dot painting

And we will sway to the didgeridoo

And strum the strings of oud

Together, you and me

We will marvel the magic of the soil

That springs life

The allure of the moon

That commands the tides

The glory of the sun

That still rises after every sunset

And the brilliance

Of the stars

That hold our secrets
My brother in hope

As long as we see each other

As long as I see you… my brother

And you see me

We exist despite their tyranny

Their colonies will fade away

And we will stand steadfast

Older than time and younger than eternity

Two indigenous nations refusing to be erased

Dancing with the spirits of our ancestors

Forever tethered to our land

Even as our roots are shredded

By bulldozers and tanks
Did you know my brother,

Our enemies are astonished by our resilience

They wonder

How is it that after all their killing

We have not ran out of living

We have not ran out of words

Or songs

Or poetry

And we …

We have not ran out of hope

My dear brother on the Birrarung

Let there always

Always

Be hope

**