ALWAYS AND AGAIN

By Brooke Scobie

17 Mar 2022

Always and Again is a poem written by queer Goorie writer, Brooke Scobie.

Joy doesn’t live here

Not really

Not for us

Iron strokes

Of concrete colony

Split country in two

Papier-mâché skull

Melted sky saliva and silver lichen

Here where the world has ended

251 times under and again

Here with you, without us

Joy is a liar

A thief

Our river lined and secret truth

Joy is in spirit

Living tendrils growing emerald

Curled round synapses

Alive and dreaming

In our sibylline desires

Of a future where

Was is

Is was

Always and round

Collective sight

Fore, fifth and sixth

Grandmother melaleuca

Twists titanium spines

Lantana and cinder block dust

Pyre ships billow

Blackened and rusted

Night thrones of

Glass shard sand

No longer rise to meet the sea

Beset with karkalla

Bellies full of thunderous silence

Lines undrawn flow from parted lips

And joy is real

For she lives here

With us

Soft under foot

Once tended tender

Land back and stood back

Joy is was

Was is

Always and again.

By Brooke Scobie

Back to ALWAYS AND AGAIN

Brooke Scobie

Brooke Scobie is queer Goorie single mum, poet, writer, podcaster, and community worker. Her writing is a love letter to people who’ve been systematically excluded. She’s been published in Overland Journal, Running Dog, Red Room Poetry, SBS, Best of Australian Poetry 2021, and was awarded second place in the 2020 Judith Wright Poetry Prize.

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ALWAYS AND AGAIN

Always and Again is a poem written by queer Goorie writer, Brooke Scobie.

Brooke Scobie

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ALWAYS AND AGAIN

Always and Again is a poem written by queer Goorie writer, Brooke Scobie.

Share

Brooke Scobie

Editor's Picks

I will not be lectured on violence by these women

An open letter to non-Indigenous people who work in Indigenous affairs

A milestone for Black sovereignty in this country: celebrating 50 years of the Tent Embassy

What is racial invisibility, and how do white people benefit from it?

Aboriginal English – what isn’t it?

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Your support will ensure IndigenousX is able to stay independent and keep making original content.

Related posts

Our Children are the Treaty generation

A reflection on Sorry Day and Reconciliation Week 2026

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Subscribe

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Jobs

Login

Subscribe

Enquire now