Clever Country Blues

I.
O Austraya, Jewel of Denial
Gotta vote unless you want to pay 10 bucks
Animal-loving laws coast to coast (smile)
Capital of passive aggression rucks

No guns here except for the criminals
Who spend each day checking our subliminals

Gay marriage — but the looks behind the back!
“Conservative” covering for sadism
No death penalty but good death squad craic
Court justice gives way to “made”-ism

Assange and Caitlin attack the Empire
But the devil here bellylaughs with fire

UN leaders in global human rights
Lord it over other states (swallow hard)
But when noone’s looking, it’s Stasi nights
A Sunni airline parked in our backyard

Place is crawling with CIA assets,
Monsters, actalikes, wannabes, tacits

II
On the other hand, just for some balance
I just love the Aussie nashnal anthem
But wish it could be sung by Jack Palance
Neath the hood of a KKK phantom

There is a fantastic safety net here
Unless a “made” they doth you declare

Austrayans may not have a Bill of Rights,
From shipmates to mateship in one geno,
Far flung by Mad King George in pink tights,
But we do have the gambling casino

It’s a clever country with mind-control —
Couch potatos, joysticks, remote console

Irony and contradictions abound
In the argot of Wicker Man island;
People have disappeared without a sound,
Others die screaming under a pile-on

I tell these things, but I tell just the half:
I fear the twists of the bush telegraph

John Kendall Hawkins is an American ex-pat freelancer based in Australia.  He is a former reporter for The New Bedford Standard-Times.