Europa Poets' Gazette, No 68, December 2009

Gone, Gone Are Those Days
Gone, gone are those days
when we had a White Australia policy.
And those in power thought
That Australia should be peopled
By only the white race
And the cries of the original owners
Of the land went unheard.
Gone, gone are those days
When some job vacancies read,
"No Catholics or Jews need apply."
Gone, gone are those days
When children born before
Marriage, or without a known father,
Were shunned by society.
Gone, gone are those days
When Australians were considered to be
Sinners for marrying a person of
A different Christian creed:
For Catholics and Protestants to marry one
Another, often, from such unions,
The couples were viewed as still unwed
And their children, in the eyes of the church,
were illegitimate.
Gone, gone are those days
When a person who had
Committed suicide
Was tried in court for committing such an act
And then was buried in a non-consecrated grave.
With our nation emerging into a one-world nation,
I hope that we will soon be saying,
"Gone are those days of children soldiers."
© Judy Brumby-Lake