Let Franklin River Wales Swim Free

A Poem about my trip to the Doctor, aged 43.

I went to the Doctor
I cried, I cried
He said I wouldn't feel a thing
He lies, he lied.

Now I lay in my pain
on my wintry bed
Would could not a Range Rover
hit me instead.

Children are a blessing
I know that's true.
But not a wife that's going mad,
snip, snip, glue.

Cauterized and Neutralized
with blue white flames of heat.

The Doctor didn't check to see
if I was asleep.

Bruised and battered
in the stones
that once brought so much joy.

This is a pain that is reserved
only for a boy.

It troubles me
when I see
men kept in the dark

Like Jonah in a belly's whale
Or fish in Noah's Ark

These little men
I can hear
Though I cannot see
Their shouting out a protest song...

No more damns for the Daintree
Let Franklin river whales swim free.