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Selected Poems from Billy Marshall Stoneking's classic collection of poetry

RILEY

riley died last night
without a campfire
without his family
without the wind or the sand
without a dollar in the bank
without two good kidneys
without a hand in his hand

from too much medicine
from too much pain

not because he was poor
not because he was black
not because he was misunderstood
no, not because of any of these, no
most assuredly not, no
of course not,
not at all
not at all.





RICHARD'S SONG

No meat no rifle no spear
can't know em
store hungry
can't buy em no money
can't steal em me
can't grab em
can't work em
can't grip em my kids
hand broke
workin tractor
can't feed em
hungry got angry
not lucky me
can't fight em

one month
one bed
four wall





CUSTODY

Sweat rolls down her speech
as baby fumbles in the sand.
Her nulla-nulla swings
and tears the air.
That woman's daughter
"who got my son a broken neck,"
she says,
"that one's gonna pay
and her aunties..."
Someone swats the flies away
from baby's face. And a man
carrying four spears
watches and waits.
And that one - "maggot vagina" -
that one's gonna pay
for that broken neck in Alice Springs jail.
Everybody's gonna pay.
It happens so quickly --
the digging stick, a scream &
blood everywhere.
Yelling and shouting.
A policeman opens the back of the van
& hands baby into the cage.


Note: A Nulla-nulla is the Aboriginal word for a digging stick, usually a four to five foot length of hardwood, two or three inches in diameter, with pointed ends.






UNEMPLOYMENT

If people working
Birds look happy
Trees look happy
Sand looks happy.

If sit-down money
Birds look sad
Trees look sad
Sand looks sad.





SORRY BUSINESS

(A B C D E F G)

He was attacked with a shovel spear.
They had been drinking.

(Answer Yes or No)

Hot day.
Everyone had been swimming.

(Complete the sequence: 8, 10, 11, 13,...)

The card game collapsed.
The wound was packed with ash.

(One out of twenty)

The women struck their heads with billy cans.

(Good girl!)

Blood trickled onto print dresses.
Willie Tjungurrayi is dead.

In the school, behind the fence,
the staff discusses
the problem of attendance.


Note: "Sorry business" is an English phrase used by Aboriginal people to denote personal and collective, ritual expressions of sadness at the death of someone in the community.

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Read Billy Marshall Stoneking's poetry in
in the official Uluru Guidebook
enquires to http://www.unswpress.edu.au

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Back to

Page 1 of Singing the Snake

Page 2 of Singing the Snake

Billy Marshall Stoneking in Woodstock

Ezra Pound Meets the Aborigines

Eisentein in Mexico


Email: billy@stoneking.every1.net