Shame

from Loudmouth: Page and Pub Poems by Michael Botur

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lyrics

Shame

Those wearing rags and gourds, National Geographic photogenic, we gave them pants and hats and shame.
Those that pack a dozen cuzzies and aunties into their homes, we blame them for spreading meningitis, for being a fire risk.
Those who make lunch the main meal then sleep the best bit of the trading day away, we gave them shame.

Those who place tribal value over individual –
Those who boil bones and suck shellfish –
Those afraid of gas and oil and coal, and squander gold

Those whose flags have a gap where there should be a Union Jack, we gave them shame.
Those who eat snakes, bugs and dog, we gave them shame.
Those whose church takes place on Saturdays, shame.

Those who marry at puberty
Those who believe Jesus came in 1855
Those still stuck in the Stone Age

Those who don’t match a flesh-coloured Band-Aid, shame.
Those who shovel food in their lips with palm leaves, fingertips or chopsticks, shame.
Those whose names are only clicks and vowels, the wrong diphthongs and out-of-alphabetic sounds, shame.

Types that arrive from islands without winter, Christmas holly on a wreath or falling leaves, shame.
Those who believe there are souls in trees & beasts, shame
Those who exhume and get festive with the dead, shame

People without MBAs, particle accelerator rays, metallurgy.
Heathens who carve deities from bones, and those
who believe you can own a beach

are stopped from cutting down native trees, and now
they gotta pay ten bucks for a bag of kindling
from Caltex or BP like ordinary normal peeps.

credits

from Loudmouth: Page and Pub Poems, released March 7, 2021

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about

Michael Botur Whangarei, New Zealand

Michael Botur is a New Zealand poet and fiction writer of European heritage. He is author of ten books and has won a bunch of bigshot writing awards.
'Loudmouth: Page and Pub Poems' collects 15 years of spoken word verse from one of NZ's most dynamic young poets. Perfect for anyone who loves the personal mixed w the political, a little bit of hip hop and plenty of attitude.
www.nzshortstories.com ... more