Outside the GPO,
Boorloo/Perth.
Midday.
Who wants to call
a meeting space
Site of non-violent
resistance
to settler
thinking.
Invasion Day gathering
to affirm the rights
and spirit
of First Nations people.
I cross the overpass
from the railway
station, descend
the escalator
and walk adjacent
to where, a week ago,
the attacker threw
an improvised
explosive device
encased in a Disney sock —
into the heart
of the crowd.
Racist nationalism
is the slow emergence
of cause while
continuing its effect.
The unexploded
that reaches
and keeps reaching
for casualties,
for aftershocks.
Walking adjacent
I try not to sidestep
the distress.
John Kinsella
