Living Free, Just Outside of Locktown

I once received a mailing

that requested some explaining

A handwritten note

Where freedom’s been smote

From a city under the world’s worst detaining

While in Ballarat we’re considered “free”

to most other places we can’t flee

We can shop local

and be somewhat social

as long as outside and no more than three

So what they call freedom isn’t to me

to be anything like what used to be

I’ve stopped listening

to the rules and imprisoning

And just try to trudge on merrily

But for Melbournians for 250 days plus

how they don’t go mad and do nothing but cuss

I may never understand

But it’s the Australian brand

to comply, maybe grumble, but not raise a fuss

So at home, most Melbournians sit

Barley allowed outside to keep fit

Most everything closed

all freedoms apposed

the harsh reality stinks to high shit

So I shouldn’t complain about life regionally

At least our new normal is freer than thee

“We’re all in this together.”

That’s what they say, however

our cell block is girt by more than just sea

“Girt” — An old English word meaning ‘surrounded or encircled’.

The word is included in the lyrics of the Australian national anthem.

Does that help explain the concept of ‘freedom’?

I hope for all of us it will indeed come

From an outsider’s vision

we look like a prison

With Melbourne the tomb in a mausoleum