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About Time is the national newspaper for Australian prisons and detention facilities

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ISSUE NO. 2

August 2024

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Poetry

You Were Never There

Anonymous

The writer is an incarcerated woman who writes from a prison in Melbourne.

You were never there to tuck me into bed

No, you were never there at night when I was scared

Mama, where were you when I needed you most

Mama tell me why all alone I had to cope

The other kids at school, well they all had a mum

The other kids, the other kids all had someone

I never had a close friend, one to call my own

Someone just to laugh with – I always cried alone

When I needed bandages there was no one round

No-one to feed me chicken soup when I was down

Mama you left me, I might as well have died.

Mama when you left me I wonder if you cried.

Then when I got older the emptiness it grew

In every room, in every crowd I was dying to find you

All the endless, empty bars in this empty city

Faceless people on the streets and roads that hold no pity.

Still alone I travelled following the sun

Each time loneliness came to me I’d just up and run

Mama did I do something wrong, tell me was I bad

To make you give away the little child you had.

You were never there to tuck me into bed

No, you were never there at night when I was scared

Mama, where were you when I needed you most

Mama tell me why all alone I had to cope

The other kids at school, well they all had a mum

The other kids, the other kids all had someone

I never had a close friend, one to call my own

Someone just to laugh with – I always cried alone

When I needed bandages there was no one round

No-one to feed me chicken soup when I was down

Mama you left me, I might as well have died.

Mama when you left me I wonder if you cried.

Then when I got older the emptiness it grew

In every room, in every crowd I was dying to find you

All the endless, empty bars in this empty city

Faceless people on the streets and roads that hold no pity.

Still alone I travelled following the sun

Each time loneliness came to me I’d just up and run

Mama did I do something wrong, tell me was I bad

To make you give away the little child you had.

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Our team was blown away by this beautiful painting.

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Don't fear my love, everything’s alright. Don't fear my friends, the future looks bright.

Creative

ISSUE NO. 21

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I sit here watching the second-hand ticking by as it slowly keeps passing my time... And just as I thought the world can’t be changed it's an apocalypse of the mind.

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ISSUE NO. 21

1 MIN READ