Directions

Don’t like to think of it as South of here,
but it’s down there where our map insists
the origins of what we see as ‘mongrel’ has to be;
and it doesn’t seem so long ago we’d cast

Quite chary hints about the good directions
and suggest that West was where you’d want
to be, or even East but never in a thousand
years drift back into a nemesis of murky past.

We guess that left the Northern route all
out alone as truly fancy free – a path to
futures blessed before the rest passed
judgement unilaterally

So here we sit bemused by views accusing
us of never looking to the South without
this prejudice afire; but we’ve never lied
to you is our august reply –

Your caste’s the one who tossed us out
back when you deemed us lesser men,
and now we’re blamed for failures in your
sorry version of our promised land

What would you covet here we ask – as
if it isn’t plain – we have for sure the things
you lack, the sea, the sun, our fierce pride,
the wind, the rain; you’re welcome be

Assured, when you devise a way to say
you’re sorry and apologise for treating us
with wry contempt and causing pain – and
we’d say with wisdom undisguised

T’would be a great idea to lose your
accent mate before reproving us for being
uneducated and aggressively prejudiced
redneck Queenslanders again!
© 31 December 2011, I. D. Carswell