Poem
Maxine Beneba Clarke
Bridge
before despair hits before the shame
before scanning job sites and uncertainty
it’s shiny writing on the wall
reading centrelink
named like it’s
the net that catches the
hand that pulls you up
and some kind of
bridge between
never thought you’d end up here
nah, not you
with people like this
we are all just one small disaster
away from sinking
and sometimes you only realise
when you’re gasping for air
what happened
that our hearts are no longer
big enough
to take us there
didn’t have a mental illness
until you did
three small wide-eyed kids
boss said there was no safety harness
just an hour before you slipped
the redundancies
came out of fucking nowhere
mama had a fall
no money for the nursing home and you
couldn’t do that anyway
nah, not to her
sometimes a handout is a hand up
that’s the thing
and it’s never you
it’s never you
until it is
and so what and god bless you
if it never hits
’cause rorting pollies with investment houses
and lifetime pensions that we’ll all pay
will flood the airways screaming
empathy is not the way
they’ll find the haystack-few who work
the system and round them up
bowed-headed
to parade
and god forbid
god forbid you’re accidentally
overpaid
nah, not your fault
but at forty dollars
till the cupboard empties
a robocall is all that stands
between packing lunches
and an early grave
we are all one
automated debt-collect
away