Are You There?

Is it me you hear calling to you? Calling from the past to you
Shipped from the poorest parts of our biggest city.
We were full of promise as we traversed the gangplanks
The girls with shiny, satiny ribbons;
That bounce off their shoulders at the end of their plaits
Me with a small suitcase featuring a change of socks
And a reminder of ‘I love you son.’
With bountiful hope we chattered through the many days
We didn’t know what was to become of us.

We are a secret buried for decades,
Concealed under the space of an entire hemisphere
We were separated from our dearest siblings,
As we realise our new reality,
And under those towering gum trees we survived.
Once we expected more than this toil, this heartbreak
This is a place with no way out.
Now pain is all that reverberates through time
I send my message out from under these oppressive, sepia skies
Brother can you hear me? Brother are you there?