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I pledge to keep seeking out and requesting stores stock Fair Trade products, to keep doing volunteer work and to keep campaigning for rights of the voiceless and most underprivileged in our society through my work on the management collective of the Council of Single Mothers and Their Children in Melbourne, Australia, and other orgs and by letter writing to pollies and the media, through my poetry and through Get-Up, Greenpeace, AVAAZ and other important and powerful online petitions. I pledge to continue to keep giving away rather than selling all items no longer needed by our family and to ask for donations to important charities rather than presents in the family Kris Kringle at Christmas. I pledge to never give up trying to make a difference to halt global warming through human inaction on greenhouse gas emissions and overclearing. I promise to compost and recycle and buy pre-loved stuff or no stuff as often as possible. I promise to give back for what has been given by a provident universe to me. I pledge to continue to do what I can to lift the profile and promote the talents and knowledge of the indigenous Australians for the benefit of all.

Hey ho - let's go!

Hawthorn, the Hawks, have made the Grand Final to play Geelong, the Cats, at the MCG this Saturday. I'm supporting the underhawks. They have five fantastic indigi players - Mark Williams, Chance Bateman, Cyril "Junior" Rioli, Cameron Stokes and last but not least, Lance "Buddy" Franklin. Buddy is the most althletic, graceful, powerful, marvellous player I've ever watched. He's still like a big Great Dane puppy too, not always sure of what he's doing. I really love to watch the sheer thrill he gets from being out there on the grand stage of finals footy. Can the MCG still hold 100,000 people? If so, they'll be there on Saturday. Logic says the wrecking ball that is Geelong will win, but I'm barracking for the Hawks since the Maggpies and Bombers have bombed out. I'll be watching round at the neighbours' place. Battered cat, anyone?

Junior Rioli and Jason Akermanis: the black and the white of Australian Rules football

shadow got lost

cargo ships
containers
your shadow got lost
when you came through here
10 days ago
back on your way out to sea

cargo ships
containers
your shadow curls around my body
your arms a deadlock
I fought 10 days ago
laughing
wrestling
twisting
fighting
pin you back onto my bed
the wonder in your eyes
acquiescing


cargo ships
containers
lashed down with your will
the swell splashing in the strait
lurching 10 gallon drums
singing like whales
of fiery orange, yellow
banging in the north easterly
heading purposefully out to sea

but your shadow stayed here
belonging time
sleeping spooned with me
belonging time
as the sun
circumnagivates
our bed

Slow fuse

on through the night following she thought about the night before
there had been a small ember left at the heart of the burnt-out
section and when the extreme dark swallowed her and the morning
was at its zenith of cold the secret barely-there coal throbbed faintly on

a day later she was scrubbing at the stains in the jail issue clothing
when a shower of sparks fell in the southern section
a crack of coal split open the corner of her eye blazed tangerine

a string of poets gathered by a brazier singing
in the distance in the rain a meteorite entered the sea
the swamp grew the ruins charred artists took charcoal
the stains disappeared from the jail issue clothing

the frogs came, and they sang too
one day we will be free
we will be free on day

blood pheasant

splittism

our crockery is decrepit
I buy new crockery
I stand on my toes in K-Mart
and reach for a cheap
plain white set
on the top shelf.
marked down.
“made in China”.

it has flaws in it
but it is beautiful
flaws are at the heart of beauty.

I like to eat and watch tv
: exactly what was banned
in childhood.
ah, the simple, deep pleasure
of disobeying

on TV tonight there
is a secret documentary
filmed undercover in Tibet
I hear the plate I’m eating off
may have been made
by forced labour in Tibet
and labeled
“made in China”

I have also bought
towels today.
two creamy, one slate –
cotton, “made in China”.

one hand towel
the first I have ever owned.
I suspect this is decadent
even if it came from Safeway

a woman is talking with
the bottom of her face hidden
she has been sterilized
without anesthetic.
she shows the scars.

if I could give her
my hand towel, I would.
it is slate, quite lovely.
the hand towel was
“made in India”.

the Tibetan government in exile
is in Dharamsala, in India.
thank you India.

a man talks about handcuffs.
apparently there are several kinds.
ones for the thumbs.
some for the wrists that cut the wrists

for a picture of the Dalai Lama
they could hang you from the ceiling
your hands would be cut off
and so you can stand on your toes

at just the right height
you can stand all night

when they release you
you aren’t much chop at working
(that’s what one old man says)

the interviewer went undercover
for three months
in Tibet
his face is very sweaty

how can I watch this bravery
in the magnificent brilliance of Tibet
as brilliant as a mountain blood pheasant
red and green?

I wish all of the governments
of the world had missed
the opening ceremony
of the Olympic Games
I wish no-one and gone at all

how can I afford
my disobedient pleasure?
I switch off the brilliant
colours of my TV.
of course
it is “made in China”.

David Hicks arriving back in Australia

Detainee 002 (for David Hicks)

Detainee 002 is back
He’s wearing this jumpsuit like a tradie
and it’s a blood orange colour
like a day-glo explosion
in the gloom of the news at six

And there’s a pixelated stumble
cos he’s tripping down the stairs of the jet
short-shackled/ wrist to ankle
Detainee 002 is back
from Guantanamo Bay

But these new chains
are like the old chains -
rewind 1788:

sailing into focus
come 11 convict hulks
casing for a place
to start rendition

La Mama's tree has many leaves