Lost Country, by David Jarvis 2022.

The love of roads and mines,

of greyed highwayed lanes,

of manicured plantations and barren plains.

Booze running in their veins

Bigots fighting black and white

streams filled with urine and shit.

We know it but do not share it,

our shame kept so private.

I detest urbanised country

its blocks of monstrosities,

of square concrete jungles

asphalt and wanton cruelties.

I hate her cramped horizons,

I hate her chlorinated pools,

Her ugliness and leaders’ apathies

This grey hard city is not for me!

Old forests cut for quick dollars

A tradegy of the fool,

Open pit mines and their scars,

Coal and gas gushing to the moon.

Rubbish infesting our sacred bush,

Where now camels and cats rule,

with cattle and sheep spoiling

once fertile soft red soil.

Core profits and corporations

Stealing your childrens’ wealth

New toys substituted for family health.

We feel ourselves dying

Amid the smoggy air rising

pollutants entering our young ones

twisting their precious minds and genome

whilst the war drums beat accelerando

and the seas coral fade morendo.

Core profits and corporations,

lands of the cursed opals,

For climate change, covid and bushfires

insurers will not fully pay our locals.

Behind closed skyscraper doors

Across million dollar tables;

Can we hear them rubbing their paws

With thoughts of rising profits enabled?

A convict culture country

prosperity bought by thieves.

Stolen generations and lost dignities

with working people on their knees.

In the thirsty front bars

be wary of your drunken gazes

avoid the smoking tars

reject pokies taking your wages.

Though our planet has much beauty

she is deteriorating rapidly.

I know some only pretend to care,

and that is why I share

this story of Australia not so fair.