Poems

A Response To Dan And Others

A Response To Dan And Others by Sebie Brooks (pen name)

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By Jens Korff
| 2 min read

Last updated:

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Sold! Show me how No, thank you 

If I could, I would
See you in tall ships sail into our harbours
Carrying the many small seeds of our destruction
If I could, I would
Watch you fire long sticks of flame from far off hilltops
Our sticks falling short of any meaningful response
If I could, I would
Let you force your Gods down our throats
And build wrongness in the land
If I could, I would let you say
We don't exist.
Pay us with addiction.
Make us carry dog collars.
Ask permission to marry, to breed
To die.
If I could, I would most of all
Give you back your mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters
Uncles and all the other Ys
But if I could I might
Ask
Should I?

Sebie is a non-Aboriginal author and submitted this poem in response to the Aboriginal poems published here. Thank you Sebie.

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Harvard citation

Korff, J 2018, A Response To Dan And Others, <https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/arts/poems/a-response-to-dan-and-others>, retrieved 12 July 2020

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