THE D.S.P.

Patron Saint of Australia, Michael Leunig

APPLICATION FOR DISABILITY SUPPORT PENSION(DSP)

SHELL-SHOCKED

In the post-psychosis after-life,

I dissolved, so my husband 

Supports me in sickness and 

In health till death by a deep

Depressive catastrophic sea-level 
Rise,
Perhaps...

No malingerer, yet never good enough;
Tried to work as factory fodder, shop-girl,
Girl-Friday but after a time my mind
Was washed up on a different shore.

My armour plates were shed  
To sad/istic souls, feelings sunk
Like buried news of crustaceans in our

 Acid ocean, burned by brutal care-less Capital.

I have to be a house-wife contained 

As a sensitive flower, no longer an 
Angel of the house, or the morning,

Bereft of protection against an overload

Of Reason, critique and bullying tactics,

Expectations everywhere like poisoned darts.

So, I require poetry, beauty, and a 

Garden, with landscape as if I was 

Entitled through DNA, my birth-right,

To feebly step, corseted, fragile

Lady of aristocratic lineage

Dependant on Man or Minister.

If I'm sent off the grid to pauper status

Resilience limited, reclusive in my

Green valley, perpetual convalescence

Shelled to an inch of flesh and heart,

I curse the radio news
You Christian MP's will be damned and go to Hell!

A Silent curse when a Commonwealth safety-net
Is begrudgingly given in it's redistribution to those
Of us damaged, at a disadvantage by Providence.

Protected Species on a
Queensland mountain top.

Australian voices contribute to this guide
 including mine!

(c)copyright J.McNeill July 2015

Shell-shocked poem

all rights reserved

BUILDING RESILIENCE

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