Sydney 2000 Youth Grant
Headstones a corridor for passage of their youth
Escape through suicide
Alcoholic resignation sets in early,
Bolstered by smiling lies on poster and screen.
Booze and pills hide the hurt and numb the pain,Example set with samples in every family home.
Smoking dope is outlawed,
Inflated out of reach by an ageing stoned elite.
Chemicals appear like magic,
Powders, dots and capsules offer ersatz love.
Phoney confidence for the price of a meal,
Or a second-hand pair of shoes.
Matrons tut-tut to their martinis,Bloated blokes condemn them over beers,
The nation's elders shuffle in their pews.
Whingeing whites,
Nostalgic for a colonial terrorist past.
Self-absorbed and isolated,
Frightened to learn from new arrivals,
The simple secrets of survival.
Yearning for the old Australia,
A new South Africa in the Pacific.
Terrific.
Adult onset mass hysteria,
Channelled by the shadows of tellyland.
Lurking spiders spin their yarns of paranoia,
Between dazzling ads for brighter whiter living.
While young peoples' souls shrivel,
Like bloodstains in sand.
