Silence
Don’t mistake silence for silence.
Because I have been sweating and shaking
and my heart beating too fast,
don’t for a moment think that I’ve
forgotten Julimar forest and all
that dwells in its ambit. Don’t for
a moment think that my silence
is a silence that absorbs the gouge
of drill bits, that falls into the ‘future’
as if a forest was never there. This
mining colonialism relies on silence
from those it feels ultimately
are within its grasp; that after
a ‘song and a dance’ they’ll lapse
back into silence, be happy to see
one or two cockatoos and maybe a photo
of a woylie, that they’ll simply
comply by citing, I accept that this world
is a rechargeable battery, a battery that grows,
a battery to store and release
all earthly energy. But no,
I won’t be silent in my silence —
the roots of a forest hold and store
an ineffable energy that impels speech.
John Kinsella
