I saw John Pilger's Utopia today

I saw John Pilger's Utopia today.
After I had argued with an Aboriginal girl about who was blacker - she or I.

I saw heaven reflected in the face of a child.
I thought about leaves and the setting sun and the full moon.

I read about refugees committing suicide.
And then I read about refugee-suicide (with the dissociative hyphen included prominently).

I dreamt about knights and minarets and sailing ships.
I saw the dreams of the subaltern rendered helpless,
Lost in the waves of a metal storm.

I learnt about the First Industrial Revolution, and then the Second, and what if the Third?
I felt the land under us sundered dry in a chemical deluge.

I experienced pain and retribution and shame
I also know redemption and love and the forgiveness of sins

I try to be a good person
When all I can do is be less bad than I ought.

I saw John Pilger's Utopia today.
And I exoticised the Red Earth of the First Nations.
And imagined the riches under the graves of the Frontier Wars.
And forecast the rise of the untethered soul,
Dismissing country and home and connection,
For an existence dictated to by the Next Great Experience.

Which exploits, first, the luckless and gun-less
Then the topsoil, and the water, and the beasts and birds
And becomes the New Age Guru
Of Loss and Consequence, in that order.

I saw John Pilger's Utopia today
And then I argued with a white girl about privilege - hers and mine.