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Thylazine: The Australian Journal of Arts, Ethics & Literature                                                                                                                                   #5/thyla5k-mb AUSTRALIAN POETS SERIES 5 The Poetry of Meghan Boynton Selected by Coral Hull [Above] Photo of Meghan Boynton by photographer unknown, year unknown. I Sense Coming I Australia's Truth I Voices At Sea I Roads I Sense Coming Let our children not die Not knowing what peace is The power of justice The yearning for truth The common links of life That we take for granted Let us share our differences Sort rights from wrongs Put our past behind us Knowing our future would be strong Let us dance our own dances And speak our own tongue Look upon us as kin Let us join as one For what we have now Is a race that is masked By a country too shamed To count us as national pride Let us celebrate with you The making of a new song The dawn of a new world Let the legends live on Australia's Truth They stomp around the fire Dust flies up in the air The ceremony is beginning Music, men, women and children are here Dancing to the rhythm Keeping up with the pace Circling and clapping happily All black All friendly of face Renewing their youth Fulfilling their spirit They dance on And on ... and on Until the dawn comes And reveals their colour They move back Retreat ... Retrace ... At night we share the same colour At dawn we see the truth For what is colour of skin Compared to a friendship together The only thing stopping us now Is the world's arrogance put together Voices At Sea The inside voices of Australia Are buried beneath the sea The waves push them down Smash them and suck them back out to sea From the rocks, blood trickles down From blacks killed long before But the sea keeps on smashing And pushing us down even more We only get glimpses of blood As it is quickly washed away By racist, arrogant clan Who deny the blood on their hands So keep washing us away if you wish Our skin will not be faded Remember it started with you That day when you invaded Roads Walking down familiar dirt roads Seeing what no-one else sees The history of the stolen generation The trees they stare into me They tell nothing But let me see What I can become What I want to be I see past generations Staring into my eyes Calling me to stay there To comfort their desperate cries But I'm scared to come forth In what they urge me to do To take a stand to unite To walk the way they do Scared to drift from my familiar roads To foreign lands of knowledge For years I've stayed weak And dreamt of being strong Until I accept my calling To lead the Aboriginals on About the Poet Meghan Boynton Megan Boynton is a 17 year-old indigenous Australian poet who lives at Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia. She recently completed Year 12. Meghan takes interest in all outdoor activities including poetry and reading. Her work has been presented at the Melbourne Writers Festival by fellow indigenous writer and activist Lisa Bellear. As a result of that day a CD was recorded called "Creating A Space". Meghan writes about personal experiences that have affected her life as well as experiences she has heard of from the Aboriginal community in Balranald. Meghan is a strong, emerging and orginal voice in indigenous Australian poetry who believes in moving forward through the process reconcilation.    [Above] Photo of Meghan Boynton by photographer unknown, year unknown. I Next I Back I Exit I Thylazine No.5 (March, 2002)