I watched Obama drone on,
and saw the shattered bodies
collateral damage I was told.
How was he to know it was a wedding party
rather than a rebel stronghold,
from 40,000 feet they look the same.
How to apportion blame?
Yes it was a terrible shame.
But we’ve done it again and again.
I can still feel the pain
in those children’s tortured limbs.
Our indifference to Israeli cluster bombs
dropped on Gaza
our understanding of Israel’s hurt,
stung by Arab criticism of their military.
No wonder Israel had to tear down Arab houses
and build Israeli settlements on Arab land.
The judges in Tel Aviv ordered it.
It was ordained in Jewish scriptures.
It must be true, the Zionists told me so
and they should know.
My government sends soldiers and sailors
and aircrew to fight wars in foreign lands.
To kill and maim and drive insane
anyone who opposes our right to invade their land.
We are spending $50 billion to buy submarines.
We can’t wait to waste money on Strike Fighters.
The military and the police can have what they like
so long as they subjugate my fellow citizens.
In the Philippines they have elected a madman as president.
He thinks that ordering extrajudicial killings of thousands
of suspected drug dealers is justice and even justifiable.
In West Papua, Kopassus murders Papuans
for raising the Morning Star – their freedom flag.
The TNI shoot peaceful protesters on a whim.
This wholesale slaughter is ignored by my government
so that we can return asylum seekers and their boats
to Indonesia whenever we want.
Asylum seekers, arriving on leaky boats,
coming across troubled seas,
seeking to escape tyranny.
And what do we do?
My government incarcerates them
on distant Pacific Islands where they are molested
by armed guards and local thugs.
Their sanity is sorely tested by constant harassment.
My government disproportionately jails Aborigines,
It teargasses Indigenous kids locked in prison cells.
Aborigines die 10-20 years younger than other Australians.
We stole their land, we raped their women,
we stole their children and enslaved them.
Now we blame them for their poverty.
My government sends threatening letters to poor people.
Demanding that they pay back money they never received.
Ministers employ private debt collectors who threaten pensioners.
All the while government ministers greedily grab perks
to top up their $300,000 plus annual salary.
They need to rob the poor so that they can give
tax cuts to big business and subsidies to multinationals.
We used to have money to burn
but since the rise of neoliberals
we need to learn,
to strive and yearn
to promote greed
and stamp out need
blame the impoverished
for their failure to succeed.
Whilst absolving ourselves
for avoiding taxes
or not paying our dues.
Because we owe them nothing,
not justice, not humanity,
not dignity or unity –
this is neoliberal piety.
First published in Little Darwin 22/1/2017
Copyright © 2025 John Tomlinson