I was sitting and waiting one evening for a phone call and I happened upon a very big bookcase. It was quite late at night, nearly midnight, when I came across a book by the man who does the cartoon Leunig that regularly appears in The Age.
When I read this I just silently said to myself, "Yes."
The poem I was reading didn't actually pose a question to me, but stated such a great and wholesome truth that I couldn't really think of anything else other than to agree with it.
I hope you enjoy it:...
Homes are quietly burning
Madness on the march
Lies move unresisted through the land
We stand by helpless as our lives are occupied
Faster than we understand
Collaborators wave their little flags
As ugliness takes over;
"Make a friend of ugliness," they say,
"Learn the language. Then you won't get hurt."
But you will -
No matter how you crawl;
A knock on the door one night
A scuffle in the hall
Your heart rubbed in the dirt
"Alright!" you scream you indecision,
"Take the children - but leave the television!"
So you stand by useless
As childhood is trashed;
Innocence reviled;
The truth is bashed.
The home and the idea of home is set on fire
And still you stand by
As the goodness in your culture burns
And you stand there in the glow
Going, going ~ going with the flow.
Ah yes, The Flow! heaven help us.
One day you might be asked,
"How come you did not know what was going on?
Why did you not fight?"
"Fight?" you'll say,
"that's a thought that never occured."
That very word brings tears.
It will dawn on you, after all those painful years,
That to fight is one of the most
Beautiful, simple
And useful ideas.
From Leunigs' "Goatperson and Other Tales"
- xx
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