This Order is not indigenous
A strange thing happened this morning as I ran my bath
I found brown, brackish water
spouting from my tap
not trickling
gushing
this brown muddy water was making its way
through the bowels of the city
down my aging pipes
into my private space
where I lay naked
vulnerable
in my cast iron tub
I used to hate bathing as a child
on the farm I preferred being muddy and wild
not clean and presentable
It drove my parents mad chasing me around the house
trying to pin me down to a bath
time
day
of the week
except Sundays when they would let me have it
a dam bath
as they called it when I would run
mouth open
into this delicious herbal tea
legs kicking me down into the cold dark depths
arms pulling me up into the warm bright waters
threading mud through my fingers
treading water with my toes
what freedom
of movement
my childhood
was
which is what I am thinking as I lie
still
in these dam waters
shallow from restrictions by order
of some authority I hardly recognise
as I adjust the temperature
just barely with my feet
stretched out
toes clenched
I feel my childhood being wiped away
like the steam on these mirrors that now reveal
an adult worried with lines
wrinkled by time
spent in the bath listening to news of corruption
exhausted by
news of the drought
draining my country of its resources
my people of their resolve once strong
now reduced to a trickle
drip
drop
I can see the cracks in my heels
remember the mud between my toes
that once walked these lands shared by alien and indigenous
alike
coexisting in our unnatural permaculture
as it were
was
is
us believing we were letting nature
run its course when we were just neglecting
our own
for more weeds to grow stronger taller
soils to become weaker drier
as we turned our backs
on each other
The water is getting cold now
there is no more time
to wallow in these waters
play in these soils
the aliens will uproot themselves
or be pulled out
chopped down
red rings marking their execution
date
time
spent drinking from these lands
they once called home for a few hundred years
no more
noxious weeds
no more
hiding behind pretty Latin names
Acacia implexa
Nerium oleander
Rosa rubiginosa
The execution list is long
memories short
they have been found to be invasive
a species to be destroyed
at once
by authority of an
Order
Phyllym
Family
that people no longer recognise
but for the indigenous names
scrawled on their tags
laminated by their heritage
pinned down by their struggle
Class
Genus
a weak hybrid
alien to even their own
Kingdom
