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Face
by stacey Sunday, Oct 20 2019, 12:06am
international / poetry / post

a solitary black figure on a hill
face turned up toward the sky
in contrast to the down-turned faces
of western metropolises

such noble contours cut against the sky I thought,
fully aware I was projecting my own interpretation

an aboriginal on a jutting rock outcrop in the 'red centre',
spear and woomera in hand with one foot propped against
the opposite knee though perfectly balanced by the held spear
upright firmly placed, surveying the landscape,
at least I thought

but I was wrong on both counts –
the African in despair was grieving the loss
of his wife and children killed in a western instigated
tribal war for resources, the Aboriginal was simply
standing traditionally living in his dreamtime reality
un-fussed by western greed and mass murdering politics

and yet my own projections are somehow relevant
as my reality is shaped by what I see/interpret, though shared with the African and
Aboriginal as fellow human beings with a common emotional
pattern and physical survival needs

why then must western corporate obsessions for profit
be so poisonous to others?
we have no business interfering elsewhere
all in the name of filthy lucre

the disease is western in origin,
“subdue the earth” the false western god says
with no notion of universal harmony –
interference, genocidal wars,
environmental destruction in the name of subduing
the earth for profit and 'progress,'
or so we have been led to believe

but if this destruction and mass murder are progress
then you can have it, Jehovah/Jesus/Mohamed

don't cry for me or the traditionals,
cry for your own inevitable ruination –
divorced book cultures are suffering a malaise
which is terminal, however, this malaise also
blinds the eye and mind
though other eyes see clearly
in grief, joy and disaffection
to the inharmonious gods of the west,
destruction, murder, profit and ruination

a crammed, storefront window catches my reflection as I pass