Australia is a vast continent
rather flat and therefore dry
like a big brown and green biscuit.
When the Europeans came
they were white dots on this vast canvas
which they regarded as blank.
But black dots were here before them
few in number
but with a vast nomadic web.
When the white dots grew their tiny towns
their small squares and triangles
their boxes
along by the river
and laid their farms and crops
like blankets
with woolly dots and brown dots
over the hunter gather grounds
of the black dots
the black dots grew hungry
and threw sharp lines
at the woolly dots and brown dots
and ate them.
Punished by the white dots
who with their brown lines fired red dots
the black dots retreated
to the edges of the blankets.
The white dots went on to prosper
when they discovered gold dots
in the outback
and they built bigger
grander boxes.

Copyright Sandra Roe