The Indigenous Artist Magazine Issue 2 - May 2017 | Page 79

Our Ancestors Dreamtime

I like to drift off and think of what would have been an amazing time.

When all of our ancestors were roaming free and all in their prime.

To me it would have been an amazing experience and a glorious sight.

To have seen them happily talking singing and dancing day and night.

Back when they wandered from our glorious coasts to our desert plains.

And before the white men massacred them and put the survivors in chains.

Because I like to think of my people when they were proud and free.

Because to me back then they were the true definition of an Aborigine.

By Frank John-Kelly

A Room of Darkness

He locks himself up constantly in a very darkened room.

With his mind working overtime from the darkness and the gloom.

He tries to think where exactly did everything go wrong.

And why am I a weak recluse now and no longer strong.

How could I have been so weak and let depression get the better of me.

For today he is not even half of the man that he used to be.

But still he continues to struggle on and to continue the fight.

So that one day he can emerge from the darkness back into the light.