What Will Become Of Us?
We ask ourselves this question
in the midst of this mess
as our loneliness lowers our standards
and we start to search for answers
in the cynical speeches
of political ventriloquists
spewing out their old falsified syllabus
blaming anyone but themselves
from their own scientists to immigrants
ignoring the warnings of Indigenous Nations
and their limitless resilience and patience
We must ask ourselves this question:
what will become of us?
And across billions of screens
and millions of live streams
I have found no answers
So I switched off
I sat in the dirt
I turned to the earth and I asked her:
what will become of us?
And she answered
in a breath of wind
in a million new shoots growing from the ashes of the bushfires
She answered
in the death of a deer
soon to become food for the forest floor
She answered
in the jet white crows
lined up in rows
guarding the clouds
from their eucalyptus branches
She answered
in a full-bodied and pregnant sunset
with her orange lipstick and bright pink cheeks
ready to give birth to the stars...
I asked her this question
and she answered:
"What will become of us?" she said
"whatever you decide to make of us"
And when she said that
the people stood up
they felt her rumbling within their bones
bushfires finally burning within their rib cages
hearts in their fists
sparks on their tongues
their breath hot with the songs of revolution
eye sockets luminous and lasered
backs straight
ancestors hands resting upon their shoulders
spirits high
and rising
high enough to see the links between:
Ecocide and genocide
herbicide and homicide
occupied territories
and those most terrorised
women’s rights, civil rights
Trans Lives, the climate strike
Problems being globalised
solutions becoming localised
marching through the belly of the beast
the underbelly of severe oversight
so it is time for us to decide
What will become of us?
Whatever we decide to make of us
Through our actions
the future
will be revealed.