Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 37, Number 25. 25th September 1974
Anti-Tribute
Anti-Tribute
Kiss the coffin, somber grey
Suits in cars
Police, and braid;
Their Great Man, their leader
Had suddenly gone.
Their Nation mourned.
And the rain came down, drifting
In dismal shrouds.....
Days of words, Solemn words
In a long slime of eulogies.
Wreath under wreath
A garland of lies
Consumed off the newstands
The packaging of bitten lips;
Then the wheezing notes
Of a church organ;
The measured shuffle
Of pall-bearers, priests;
The live telecast,
The pageant
Of instant tragi-drama....
The last acts funnelled down
In gentle colours, And a peaking slither
Of words.
A simple Man epic,
In the news-flash grieving
Of manipulated spontaneity.
And the rain splashed in,
With an appropriate pall,
On the final scenes.....
Thousands bowed; prayed;
Huddled the streets
Bought the heart-rending merchandise,
Believed their lines.
In a deluge,
Forgot the lying politician;
Mourned some different man
With prompts,
Some profile.
Of some folksy Robin Hood.
And so the real tragedy:
Jostling to stare, mute
At a flag-draped box.
So a greater fury
One day
At those fictions raps
Hollow dreams
On the real world.
And the rain drizzled cold,
As yet another cadaver swayed
Hocuspocus
Into another oblong hole..........