Ali Eckermann

She gives him a cloud of parrots
He expects her to peel the carrots
She gives him a safari cruise
He expects her to hide the bruise
...

There is no life
but Family.

When I am young
...

old Mr Uluru
a proud man
the day the Rock
was handed back
...

Sit down sorry camp
Might be one week
Might be long long time
...

When john howard said
let’s have an intervention
the women shouted yes!
...

You call it 3 bedroom house
I call it big lotta trouble

You call it electricity
...

1
they’re here now
the Guardians
sitting on a rock
...

Sit down in the dirt and brush away the flies
Sit down in the dirt and avoid the many eyes

I never done no wrong to you, so why you look at me?
...

in an aisle
of middens
he blocks her
advance
...

Mallets pound fence posts
in tune with the rifles
to mask massacre sites
Cattle will graze
...

(in memory of my friend)
hey kungka
you want husband yet?
the old man sings out
...

Urgent darkness hunts us south, while my stomach churns with childbirth
He waits.
...

‘See you’ I said to the children
as I memorised
their Anangu faces
filled with laughter
...

1.
I walk to the south I walk to the north
where are you my Warrior?
...

Interventionists are coming interventionists are coming
the cries echo through the dusty community
as the army arrive in their chariots.
...

high on compensation
they tell me right from wrong
say the old days are over
you gotta sign the paper
...

My friend was at the A & E, he wasn’t feeling good
I was at the barbecue, just like he said I should.
The phone call from the hospital shocks me with fear and fright –
‘You better come to ICU, he might not make it through the night.’
...

a whisper arrives. two thousand. two thousand or more. did you hear it?
that bomb. the torture of red sand turning green
the anguish of earth turned to glass
did you hear it? two thousand. two thousand or more
yams cremated inside the earth. poison trapped
in glass like a museum. did you hear it?
two thousand. two thousand or more
tears we cried for our Land
for the fear you gave us, for the sickness and the dying two thousand years of memory here
two thousand. two thousand or more
peaceful place this place. happy place till you come with your bombs
you stole our happiness with your poison ways
you stole our stories
two thousand. two thousand or more
our people gone missing. did you hear it?
where's my grandfather? you seen him?
where's my daughter? you seen her?
Mummy! you seen my mum? Dad!
two thousand. two thousand or more
times I asked for truth. do you know where they are?
two thousand. two thousand or more
trees dead with arms to the sky. all the birds missing. no birdsong here
just stillness. like a funeral. two thousand or more
a whisper arrives. did you hear it?
two thousand. two thousand or more
it sounds like glass. our hearts breaking. but we are stronger than that
we always rise us mob. two thousand. two thousand or more
you can't break us. we not glass. we are people!
two thousand. two thousand or more
our Spirit comes together. we make a heart
did you see it? in the fragments. it's there in the glass
two thousand. two thousand or more
our hearts grow as we mourn for our Land
it's part of us. we love it. poisoned and all
...

despite the cost a new gaol has been built
it seems the incarceration rates are trebling
I only came here in the role
of a Deaths In Custody inspector
all the cells are stark and spotless
blank screens watch from the corner
the offices have the highest technology
the faces of the staff still look the same

when I walk down this wing and peer
into this filthy room the door closes behind me
the feeling in my heart is changing
from a proud strength of duty to fear
all the stories I have ever heard
stand silent in the space beside me — 
a coil of rope is being pushed
under the door of this cell
...

Mallets pound fence posts
in tune with the rifles
to mask massacre sites
Cattle will graze
sheep hooves will scatter
children's bones
Wildflowers will not grow
where the bone powder
lies
...