Dear Scott Morrison ...

I am a descendent of slaves,
​I am a descendent of Muslims,
I am a descendent of colonisers and slave traders,
I am a descendent of Christians.

I am a mixed up mash of things...
Lost and connected,
Belonging and rejected,
Conflated and conjected.

I am migrant...
Whirling through this fucked up mess,
This infectious disease of hate and fear,
In this country of advance,
This country of fair...

In this country of my citizenship,
For loyalty to the nationhood of dinkum- ridgey -didgedness
"She’ll be right mate"...
As long as she ain’t a she, but a he

Push...
“We want to see women rise....”
Pull...
But only if “their overall place is maintained”

"She’ll be right mate", 
As long as she ain’t a she, but a he,
With true-blue, white blood,
And a pocket full of queens earned by rite of passage,
Through the right class in the right private school,
With the right kind of religion and the right kind of mates,
Who whisper ...
“There’s golden soil and wealth for toil “
Wink, wink, nudge, nudge...
"For those who've come across the seas
We've boundless plains to share”...
Wink ,wink, nudge, nudge.

Push...
You say that you have cried on your knees over the plight of asylum seekers...
Declare ... declare
HIS universal love...Hallelujah
Pull....
They say “asylum seekers are rapists, terrorists and paedophiles”...
Beware ... beware
They will steal your place in hospital queues,
They will  steal your jobs, your homes, your souls,
And eat your children with halal vegemite, on toast, for breakfast....

I have been asylum seeker,
Standing on the edge of hope and the promise of a “ better” life in this land of sweeping plains...

I am migrant,
A descendent of strength,
A descendent of love,
A mash of  integrity , hope and difference!

And I  will not shout hallelujah to YOUR praise of hate and fear!

Message in a bottle... ( Dear Scott Morrison - self-awarded trophies for violations of human rights are not OK). Ink on paper- Copyright 2018 Lenni Morkel- Kingsbury