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Poetry by Lachlan Irvine

AUSTRALIAN POLITICS 101

We took a turn to the right and then

We took a turn to the right again.

We climbed a hill in search of the light

And after another turn to the right

We discovered the light on top of the hill

Was a funeral pyre, smouldering still.


Lachlan Irvine

 
 
 
 

THE EMBEDDED REPORTER'S SONG

 

(A Song for the Iraq War)

 

by Lachlan Irvine

 

I'm an embedded reporter, look at me,

Dashing through Iraq, so daringly.

War is hell, and war is gory,

That's okay, 'cause I'm the story.

I'm an embedded reporter, look at me, me, me!

 

I'm an embedded reporter, it's my war,

I'm Lawrence of Arabia to the core.

I stay alert both night and day,

To make sure the camera points my way.

I'm an embedded reporter, look at me, me, me!

 

I'm an embedded reporter, tried and true,

No independent thought will I let through.

What's happening in the war, you ask?

Don't I look tough in my gas mask!

I'm an embedded reporter, look at me, me, me!

 

I'm an embedded reporter, brave and bold,

I tell the world exactly what I'm told.

My mouth, it seems, I never close;

My eyes and ears? Why, who needs those?

I'm an embedded reporter, look at me, me, me!

 

 

 

PRETTY SMART

(My response to the news that the Australian government had established a Royal Commission to enquire into Aboriginal deaths in custody)


This white feller, he's pretty smart,
Got all the education, all the money;
But what he does with it sometimes
To me it can seem pretty funny.

Give our young boys grog, then lock 'em away,
Make 'em feel anger, pain and fear;
Caged up in the land where their ancestors roamed
In freedom, many a thousand year.

No tribal life, no walkabout,
No sky of everlasting stars;
Just four grey walls, a concrete floor,
And on the windows, iron bars.

But this white feller, he's pretty smart,
Millions of dollars he's goin' to pay
For a Royal Commission to work out why
We'd rather die than live that way.


Lachlan Irvine




Vietnam War Poetry

Poems of Love and Loss

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