Go Back To Where You Came From

go back to where you came from:
that dark prison cell in khartoum
where torture chairs
heat thighs / like

steak on an unoiled barbecue

to where you came from / hey you

to that / two cent per box

twenty-hour-work-day live -in

jean sweat-shop / to the

bare bullet ricochet
suicide bomb/bardment

& midnight raids

the war rape

& war rape

& war rape

& war rape

go back to where

you came from /you came
uninvited / illegal
illiterate / illegitimate

it is all so f*cking illogical

go back to where you came from
you might be a ‘faggot’
& back home they execute gays
the government hz put a price on your head:
your destitute neighbours
wd sell you for a song
& you know you couldn’t
even blame them
you fell in love
with a different man or gender or god
or simply whispered to someone / in passing
tht you thought the government/s
ethnic cleansing campaign
wz wrong

in any case
welcome to Australia
go back
where you

belong

Inspired, of course, by the documentary currently screening in Australia on SBS ‘Go Back To Where You Came From’.

Tomorrow, I’ll be performing as part of Federation Square’s Festival of Light. I’ll be opening a fiery community panel discussion about ‘Multicultural Australia’ organised by Latrobe University's Centre for Dialogue with my poem ‘immigration museum’. See you Friday June 24, from 6pm at the BMW Edge Theatre. All Welcome!Entry free.