VOICELESS BEAST

I don't know where I'm being taken
Goodbye Australia. You've done me well.
My strong legs have grazed your pastures
My black back has felt your sun.
I don't know where I am going
I do hope it will be fun!
Yet I fear now...Fear the stranger
Five men surround me, I am caged
Scowling faces, whips in hands
Still capped boots
No soft boot laces.
Two put a chain around my neck
They tighten it to strangling point
They drag me round the cold hard floor
I feel the splinters in my spine
My limbs are pulled and twisted so,
So out of joint
The small beast with the long weapon-
Circles it and snaps it down across my face
I cry out but no one cares, no one hears
The blood rushes to my ears
Then the cruelest, callas beast, coward though
For I am chained
Ragged, ripped, cut and shamed- He adds fury to my shame.
And brings his boot down on my head and my nose, again and again.
I scream, I cry! It's all too much!, "Lord Take Me Now!" I plea.
What did I do to deserve this, Please come and rescue me!
Clearly God is far away. Why was I made at all?
I was a beautiful, sturdy bull- but now I can't get up at all!
I feel so small. Searing pain, stabbing, driving, ripping! They are beasts- Not me.
I didn't ask to be here!
Where is my master? Where is my pasture?
I demand democracy.
I'm crying, I'm dying...I'm finally flying
I'm slipping in and out of dreams
my conscience state alludes me
I cannot even feel the blows any more.
I am numb
Slipping away
My fragile life floating on a whim
Floating away from the Indonesians
Back to the Australians. My dying wish.
What reason for to die like this?
Why I had to suffer this way...
To have to die so cruel
They enjoyed my pain-
They enjoyed to see me suffer
Who will put an end to it?
Well...I hope they get what's coming
When they meet their maker.

BRIAN BULL