Mardi Gras protest rally, 18 February 2024

Fair day’s cancelled
but Mardi goes on

and we March!
(avoid asbestos park)

down King Street,
queer Mecca

flanked by police, on foot
and mounted behind.

Bottoms and Tops,
we all hate Cops!

Get those An-imals
OFF those hor-ses!

Detour through
leafy student ‘burbs

handing round a drum,
and chanting strong:

Pride was a ri-ot,
we won’t be qui-et!

1, 2, 3, 4, chuck the bigots out the door!
5, 6, 7, 8, no right to discriminate!

In the margins of intersectionality,
genocide loiters.

Freeeeeee, free Gaza
freeeeeee, free Palestine.

You say accident,
we say Mur-der.

Invasion Day
is recent past and it

Always Was! Always Will be!
ABORIGINAL LAND!

We’re kids, old Green Left Weekly guys,
Bolshie unionists, gorgeous sex workers.

Equal work, equal pay!
Sex work in the ADA!

At Hollis Park
we hobnob, hang

meet chosen family —
old and new

find someone a dunny
in Stucco digs

leave on a high
catching comrades’ eyes

in street, train,
humming and hoping:

From the river to the sea
Gaza Gaza will be free.

Photo: Catherin J Pascal Dunk 2024