by KP van der Poel
Photo by Samra Teague
585 trees
Consigned to die
By parchment and pen
Only Mali knows why
Who decided we needed
More golf in the city?
The parklands destroyed
Won’t be looking too pretty
And our fearless leader
Says that more trees
Need to go
For the MotoGP
Another vainglorious show,
Says ‘you voted for this!’
In his arrogant way,
When the deal was all done
We had no real say,
He’s determined to steal
Old Kaurna land
With his secretive business
And his rough sleight of hand,
44,000 people
Signed a petition online,
To revoke
This position –
They wrote letters,
Protested,
They climbed into the trees
To save the homes
Of the possums, the owls, lorikeets,
They were arrested at the gates,
Held signs in the streets,
And now a brave man,
And a woman as well,
Are taking on Mali,
Through the courts,
Ring the bells!
To save Pirltawardli,
And other parts of the park,
It’s a blue moon over Adelaide,
A sign from the Gods,
That hubris is reckless,
And Karma’s at odds,
With Mali’s intention,
To steal public land,
Let’s hope that Colonel Light
Will come back to haunt him
And the public won’t cease
From their desire to taunt him.
585 trees
Consigned to die
And only the premier
Seems to know why.
KP van der Poel
KP van der Poel lives in Carrickalinga on the Fleurieu Peninsula. She is a member of various poetry collectives including Word Weavers (Semaphore), Pen-to-Pen, and Friendly Street Poets. Her poem 'Saya di rumah (I'm home)' in Indonesian and English is most recently published in Meuse #40 online.
Photo by Yolli Rado
See other “Park Poems” in our series
Make a submission for our “Park Poetry” series. Contact Deb Stewart: poetryintheparklands@gmail.com
