Pigeon's War Told Through the Didgeridoo

Kindred spirits
gather 'round

Do-day-gah
Do-day-lee
Ga-ma-da
Di-da-ro
Ta-ka-Tay

ancient sound.

Buzzing syllables from
beeswax mouthpiece

instrument made
from termite-hollowed
Boxgum eucalyptus
tree.

Treated with tea tree
and lavender oil.

Decorated with
aboriginal Dreamtime
symbols, kangaroos, and
billabongs,

meandering pathways to
bring together mind and
culture.

Drone, yip, bark.

Dingo
wau-wau-wau-wau
uuuuuuh-uuuuuuh.

Kangaroo
ooo-EEE-ooo-EEE.

Pigeon ate intelligent
mutton, drank Shiraz
wine from a kangaroo
waterbag.

"How smart are ya,
mate?"

"I reckon I be 'bout
as smart as yellow
dots on gray skin."

Yellow dots on gray
skin makes the lizard
invisible against the
rocks.

"Was Pigeon a
complicated
character?"

Yes, because
he wasn't a
by-the-books
man---and
everything he did,
he did with a passion
for the environment
and protecting the
land.

A native mix of
brindle, black,
and white were
hiding Pigeon
at a settler's
station,

not out of
obligation,
but to confront
the political state,
defending the land,
property, and the
hunting rights of the
indigenous people.

Pigeon wanted to
be free, let the wind
comb his hair, play a
hand or two of
canasta.

Pigeon and Arrow
were playing an
Australian version
of Knifey called
Mumblety-Peg.

They saw light
coming from the
bush.

Constable Richardson,
the elected crooked
skink that he was,
shot Pigeon in
the back.

A skink is a lizard
from the rainforest that
uses its bumpy, leathery
tail to grab on to things,

like the way a corrupt
politician grabs greed,
going out on a limb for
a bribe to line his
lizard-hide wallet.

"Bloody oath!"

FBI...Ruby Ridge...
Waco...Oklahoma City...

It is time for Pigeon's War.

In the darkness of Tunnel
Creek, the Aboriginal
outlaw Pigeon and his
small band hid from those
who hunted him for his
hit-and-run attacks on
the settlers who stole
Dreamtime land from
his people.

What are the universal
themes and linkage
between modern-day
politics and Pigeon's War?

Perhaps we will find the
answers when we raise
our spiritual IQ's ...

when we be 'bout as
smart as yellow dots
on gray skin.

Copyright 2005, Sage Sweetwater,  firebrand lesbian novelist