Distance

more than the miles between our homes
those endless stretches of highway
winding through green hills,
fern gullies and iron-red plains
more than the numbers ticking down on signs by the road
yes, more than some tyranny of geographical distance
what keeps us apart is a distance in spirit.

you are from this country; it is yours.
born of it, part of it, your ancestors have sung it
since the beginning of time.
when it’s healthy, you’re healthy,
when it’s hurting, you hurt,
as you hear your old people crying from beyond.

us mob are new here, we don’t know the Law.
songs, dances, stories, all is alien to us
and we foreign to it.
we stumble around, not knowing the country
not seeing how by degrading it we also harm you
and how we harm ourselves.
our ancestors are elsewhere, far across the seas
and we feel ourselves groundless here, purposeless and adrift.

along with this distance in spirit
there is a distance of mind.
you know the country through experience and Law
most of us have only seen pictures.
your science teaches you that all is connected
that the cosmos is an inter-dependant whole
where all things have their place
you need this country, and your country needs you.

our science says our lives are meaningless
random occurences in a cold, cruel, indifferent universe
we miss the whole for the part
the forest for the trees
the trees for the leaves
the leaves for the chlorophyll
we focus ever smaller and finer
but then style ourselves impervious, impartial observers.

for 227 years we have behaved
as if us mob knew everything
and you mob knew nothing.
let’s have some time the other way around
accept us mob are clueless
and let you mob teach us a lesson or two
then we’ll see if that distance
isn’t so tyrannous after all.

– ADM, February 2015