NaBloPoMo #27: The state of the nation (Poem)

a storm is coming for Brisbane; the growling sky
in the photos flooding social media looks evil-beautiful

a cricketer, 25, has died of a fast ball to the head.
it's a shock, as the summer starts; no lightness expected in this season's leather vs willow

Victoria rolls up her sleeves to vote
on roads-education-police-hospitals-roads;
at least the local schools will make a bundle selling sausages in bread

a baby boy found in a drain, still crying
900 scientists out of work, and the broadcaster we own together
filleted and hung out for drying

copay at the doctors may or may not be a thing;
it depends on which minister you ask, and when

and the Speaker in the House
ejects 18 elected members because they were rude, or something

and yet the world turns
on the whole, indifferent to this chunky backwater and its preoccupations
we are, it must be said,
left to our fate
to know nothing but ourselves.

- Kathy, 27/11/14