speculumannorum

I.** ‘Somewhere in France’, 1993*

When they went in search of an unknown Australian soldier

‘Somewhere in France’,

the grave robbers from Canberra dug secretly

under the cover of a sterile, white tent,

to hide their tearing of the sod of Villers-Bretonneux

from the prying eyes of passers-by.

Yet this was holy ground, so the speeches told us.

Now the headstone with Kipling’s ‘Known unto God’

was heaved aside, quietly thumping onto the lawn behind.

And pickaxe mauled French turf on its murderous way

to a serviceable cadaver.

‘Doug the dead digger’, the tomb raiders called him.

Soon enough that skeleton was clothed,

overheated in the new cult of Anzac and

blind veneration of politicians and package tour patriots.

Qantas carried him home, farewelling ‘gay Paree’,

to lie him in a tabernacle

for a post-empire people.

From: Meanjin
Autumn 2019