Pushcart Prize Nomination

THE FIRST IS THE LAST

We are the first born of this land 
But we are cursed
We are the tail of everything

Our land was robbed
Our blood was tainted
Our children were stolen
Our identity was denied

We bury generations of grief
Into drunken days and nights

Our refuge is the dreaming
Under the watch of our sky father
The only place we are the first
And his favourite

 
Writer’s notes: This poem is about the Australian First Nation Peoples (the Aboriginal Australians) who continue to suffer from the oppressed and persecuted past.