Invisible spears


A stadium can hold the most sound
drowning out the bora ring
mudding the lines we needed to know
where we’re going
now it’s a clusterfuck to get the train home
flip up seats and overflowing beer
the rude odour of tomato sauce
and the black faces they never show on TV
the team with the most blackfullas
they don’t want to win
the commentator’s curse
the tiddling fear
of invisible spears
we can’t score goals
on this sacred land
celebrated as animals
GI doing the goanna, yeah
but not people
with military intelligence
you don’t want us protecting
our land like the Maori
– that means it was our land to protect
we don’t need
a haka of whitefullas
just let us resist.

Ellen van Neerven

Ellen van Neerven is an award-winning writer, editor and educator of Mununjali Yugambeh and Dutch heritage with strong ancestral ties to south east Queensland. 'Chermy' appears in van Neerven's newly released second poetry collection Throat (UQP, 2020).

More by Ellen van Neerven ›

Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices often excluded from other places.

If you like this piece, or support Overland’s work in general, please subscribe or donate.


Related articles & Essays