Issue Two - October 2007
Brenda Saunders
Brenda Saunders is a Sydney writer and artist. She is a member of the Poets Union NSW and the Round Table Poets. As an urban Aboriginal artist and activist she is also a member of the Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative. Her poetry and articles have been published in journals like Thylazine and Poetrix as well as being broadcast on ABC Radio National. Brenda was selected for The Red Room Company’s Poetry Crimes, and more recently for Poetry Without Borders ( National Poetry Week 2007)
Dark Secrets
Truth can spill out with little hooks of questions,
caught in photos stuffed at the back of a drawer.
Families of black people camping in tents faded to sepia tints.
A loving couple one white, one dark uneasy in a boat on a lake.
And the negatives give nothing away.
Vanished frames of secret lives pale squares on wallpaper whisper denial.
In the silence of the old house my fingers leave traces in the film of dust.
Untitled
Dark hands beat the silence. Curled tight they hold the anxious moment, let others slip by.
Years of blackness spread across the palms – rivers dispossessed, tributaries going nowhere.
Time runs out with the present fear, a lifeline held in metal cuffs caught at the wrist.
Black-out
'Sista girl need money to get home Native title case 'Big time!' she raps, edgy.
Some story.
She's young, black and living in the city:
'Gimme a dolla Pay the Rent whitey guilt easy street'
Up in court, on the run. Stealing stuff, could be.
'This is a refuge' I say, 'OK? For Koori women at risk Rape and violence, you know.'
– RIGHTS FOR WOMEN pinned to the wall,
a poster men don't read,
(after the rage he's blotto on the bed.
She plays dead.)
I give her money, refer her on.
Now I hear she's working on the Block,
tradin' for cuz speedy in the fast lane: Live for the day.
Locked in jail, singin' up country.
Dreamin's free ...
cuz: cousin, friend, singin' up country: remembering tribal land