Been held by throat
Been held by knife
By men who were ‘good’
And their friends who gaslight
Been held by throat
Been held by knife
By men who were ‘good’
And their friends who gaslight
When someone holds your life
without your permission
They leave a trail of people
who assumed submission
When it’s just you,
you and your body held ransom
the fear’s inside; it churns
until you get away
When a man holds your country,
your animals and trees
the fear’s outside; it burns
but how do you escape?
They call it Climate Grief
but climate infers outside.
We’re being held by throat, held by knife,
while he looks at us and smiles.
When a man hits you, you get an AVO
and you move to another place
When a man is burning your country like paper,
you’re left choking in the haze.
What keeps him safe is not his whiteness,
god bothering or scapegoat wife,
But that he had so many hands to choke us with,
and you idiots gave him a knife.
Carissa Lee is a Noongar actor and writer born on Wemba-Wemba country, and is the First Nations Public Policy Commissioning Editor for The Conversation. She just recently submitted her PhD at the University of Melbourne on cross-cultural collaborations in the performing arts.
Can Counter-Storytelling Enact Black Justice? – (But why?)
This article is part of the Black Knowing series, a partnership with QUT’s Carumba Institute and IndigenousX. Jade Robertson explores, can telling our stories - truthfully, unapologetically - dismantle the systems that silence us?
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