Lionel G. Fogarty

Lionel G. Fogarty is Australia’s foremost experimental and political poet.  Today’s poem is from his 2014 anthology Eelahroo (Long Ago) Nyah (Looking) Möbö-Möbö (Future) titled 

Murgon Brawl Cherbourg Brawls

They out there, not hidden
Have you heard of that brawl?
Up at Murgon town
Have you seen the 20 15 or so?
Darkies cause a fuss and fight?
Well, they came and told
Me before I read a paper.
Some sisters bashed up a
Female cop hey.
Some cops dragged picked on
The wrong black man,
So they deserved what Bompi
They got hey.
Now there’s this Jackie Joe
Saying them blacks who
Can’t hold their grog bang
Brought the brawl on
And guessed what him say to media.
I’m a bit ashamed to be Aboriginal
For they should not have charged at football
Show games places
Well who started it
Cops speak drunks started
Hit Hit Hit
Black Joe Jackie says all dri=unks
Started Hit Hit Hit
But Jesus was a drunk
Have you all heard, blacks
Drunken having a good time
Blacks, playing win or
Lose, sometimes can’t
Hit, when called boong nigger,
They react fast
Have you heard of stirring?
Cheeky police office
Who wait for those loud?
Talkative blackfellas under the weather
Then bang into the paddy
Wagon or slammed
The police don’t maintain good
Relations when you heard of
Bompi Bompi with Murris
Maybe all bad cops and bad blacks
Should go over goori for fighting ground next.

(To Kurt and Nanny Fisher, Sunday 8.39 pm, 2011-01-09)

Bompi – like a waterfall hitting on your face, the name of a waterfall
Jackie Joe – a ridicule name for a black tracker, police employee
Goori – identity term for NSW/southern QLD;
Murri – identity term for NSW/QLD
Boong – derogatory term for Aboriginal people
Daran – evil magic.