Vis-à-Vish.

POST SCRIPT OF SCRIPT TO SCREEN

Tena koe
Or tena koutou
Hello one and all
I am of a tribe you do not know
One now remembered by housing projects and shopping malls
profit mountains and legal avenues and oil slick seas
And fictionally accurate movies
Defined urban
By what is not available
Under jurisdiction
Under the table
To the Underprivileged
To the lost generations

For our children are lost
Between two stories
They are lost
They are stumbling over the kerb with their eyes fixed on a digital screen
They are milling around Queen St
They are falling out of bars laughing and crying
They are huffing on bags and tagged high on corner dairies
They are lying under bus shelters for white people to write about
They are under hooded sweatshirts on the news on TV
They are waving guilt like a gun demanding your money

Give me your money
Your fucking cash
You got a dollar, mate?
All I’ve got is a blanket.

Well I walked out the door
On that speech
Went looking instead for poetry.