The Great End
Tamala Shelton

You called it the Great End
of course you did
your world had never ended 

your world 
of buttoned coats and polished shoes 
of dusty halls and empty rooms 
of blood-stained borders and blue-stained crowns 
of cold-walled prisons in every town 
of taking to the sea to exploit the foreign lands
of bullet holes in black bodies, under your command
of violating women, making them your ‘own’
of taking all their babes, removing them from home
of clearing all the forests and digging up the ground 
making way for progress in million-dollar compounds
of great churning machines, made larger than their maker
large enough to decimate, large enough to break Her 
this world of yours, this world you mourn, now coming to its end
of rising sea and burning sky, the things you can’t amend
this modern world, however, is not the first to fall
surely you must know this now, you did it after all

our world 
that prospered for over 100,000 years
long before you arrived, confirming all your fears
that we are of this land, we know its secrets and its ways
we’ve seen your plan in motion, see it reaching final phase 
you tried so hard to snuff us out, our culture and our song
you almost won, and yet we’re here, proud and standing strong 
thus herein lies the answer to your existential dread 
it’s in the ones who’ve seen your ‘Ends’, hear our voice instead. 

We called it the Great End
for surely you won’t let it happen 
again. 

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Tamala Shelton is a Bundjalung and Lama Lama actor, audiobook narrator, writer and spoken word poet. She has been working professionally in the arts for over 10 years. She was born in Naarm (Melbourne, Aus) and continues to live, work and be inspired by that country.