Three hundred and sixty-eight billion dreams

Inspired by the powerful work of Tusiata Avia

One long Jon is a dark-winged butterfly with bold red and white markings.
He is an admiral

One Brian wants to be a butterfly but he is just a VC
because he is just a VC the Brian wants to play with submarines

The Jons, the Brians and their likes like submarines

Jon likes to cultivate a nuclear mindset1
and Brian likes to repeat after the Jon2

They both like
what submarines do
submerged under water
submarines will look for peace.

In the dark deep warming ocean, the Jons and the Brians like the submarines

They like
the pollution of submarines.
Both the pollution to make submarines and
the pollution to maintain submarines.
Both the pollution to mine for submarines and
the pollution to store their nuclear waste.
They would like to
dredge the ocean
remove the corals
alter the ocean
to park the submarines

The Jons and the Brians like
the sonar pollution that deafens
the whales.
That disorients
the dolphins.
Deep in the wide dark ocean
They want

the submarines
and
a 14-year-old school girl as captain.3

Listening to Tusiata

the 14-year-old school girl has three hundred and sixty-eight billion dreams

What do you
The Jons and the Brians
know about the future of
a 14-year-old school kid?
how dare you talk about their future?
you stand on stolen lands with
your ridiculous army uniforms and
academic regalia
seeped in money
colonisation
theft
people like you have projected on humanity's future

for far too long

you mine
you dig
you kill
you destroy
Who are you to set a path for
any 14-year-old school kid?

Men like you
stale
male and
pale
get no say

Fuck off with your policies
dried of imagination
Fuck off with your money
and uniforms and speeches
Fuck off with your boring visions
unimaginative plans and rotten predictions
Fuck off with your submarines

Fuck off
School kids dream
they flourish
they fight and resist

mediocre men
like you
who have mediocre dreams
for them

Watch your ribs the Brians and the Jons!
          (like James had to watch his with Tusiata)

• 1. https://www.theaustralian.com.au/special-reports/cultivating-a-nuclear-mindset/news-story/15e1b23576f3301cdf2e9b7566811bd0
• 2. https://www.anu.edu.au/news/all-news/building-australias-aukus-ready-nuclear-workforce
• 3. “setting a 14-year-old schoolgirl on a path to captain the first or second SSN (nuclear-powered submarine).”