From the Bush crusade to foreign aid,
Iraqi sanctions to the world’s arms trade;
from the threat of globalisation
to social welfare in this nation
you tore through the tissue of lies-
500 issues they despise.
Street sellers in the rain,
it was worth the pain
and we’ll do it all again.
Your pages shone light upon
Palestinian and Sudanese
Timor’s struggles and refugees
crowded boats and desperate pleas
and Ruddock’s attempts to appease
Australia’s conscience.
With poetry, cartoons and satire deft
without you I would be bereft.
Keep going, grow stronger Green Left.
Published in Green Left Weekly 2002.
Copyright © 2023 John Tomlinson