November verse 11

I’ve been a bit busy, and will struggle to reach my quota of 14 stanzas this month. Here’s a what-I-did-on-the-weekend verse.

Verse 11: The Rising Tide blockade of Newcastle coal port
With face paint, dolphins, rain and thunder,
unicorn and sousaphone,
for thirty hours, a joyful wonder,
kayaks shut the coal port down. 
Face to face with climate evil,
disobedience was civil.
Some as clowns or pirates dressed
a hundred brave souls faced arrest,
while hundreds on the shore were chanting,
'No more coal, no more oil,
keep that carbon in the soil.'
Drumming, singing, waving, dancing:
'Stop the coal, stop the ships,
we say no apocalypse.'

Added Monday morning: Shockingly, today’s Sydney Morning Herald makes no mention of this huge act of civil disobedience. It carries a huge ad for ‘oil and gas giant’ Woodside.

Added Tuesday morning: The Sydney Morning Herald did run a piece on the blockade, dated 7.31 yesterday morning, so too late for Monday’s newspaper. It’s mentioned in the ‘In other news’ section of their morning email. You can read it here.