Tina Kane: Melbourne Morning
Melbourne Morning
for Chris Nicholson
As I sat resting on a back verandah
a warm morning after the long flight,
taking in air scented eucalypt,
a dove cried and flew to land, startling memories
of watching doves dust bathe, one wing raised for hours,
sunning in your back yard, true Australians.
Some doves are natives here
the diamond doves, the peaceful doves,
the bar shouldered doves.
All doves mate for life, just once.
Your doves were diamond doves
or maybe ring necked turtle doves,
immigrants that picked up local habits over time, like us.
I could have guessed affinity
returning every year to find
them crooning softly in the dusty light,
your companions those solitary years
after we had flown the coop.
Still you were no dove, unless these gentle birds
conceal sharp wit and lashing fierceness
behind their cooing ways,
steadfast hearts.
Who knows in infinity how these things go?
Startled one morning, worlds away,
a dead dove at the feeder, perfect in the snow,
I knew as sure as fire you were in for it.
You gave me the world my love,
now I am the mourning dove
north to south and back again
hunting the world for traces of God knows—you.
Your doves are scattered to the winds
crying their message as they sing,
but this one here—
I swear she’s looking at me now.
Tina Kane
Madam: Archbishop Fisher (July-August 2024) does not resist the attacks on his church by the political, social or scientific atheists and those who insist on not being told what to do.
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6 mins
To claim Aborigines have the world's oldest continuous culture is to misunderstand the meaning of culture, which continuously changes over time and location. For a culture not to change over time would be a reproach and certainly not a cause for celebration, for it would indicate that there had been no capacity to adapt. Clearly this has not been the case
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2 mins