Terra nullis ignorata - Poem by Ivan Donn Carswell

We came to find the place contained
in legendary tracts, the hidden land
of fulsome wealth that we had sorely lacked,
an empty land of winsome dreams.
We found the continent intact with
evidence of everything the schemers
claimed except it wasn’t empty, we marked
our landing with a pile of sticks and scratched our names,
we even framed the land around without a sign
for Crown and Queen, pretending that
their heirs would reign. We made a pact
before we left to not reveal the site, acted
for the good believing that it might restrain
the avaricious deeds our leaders would ignite.
The owners of the land were shy but graciously
extended hands and trusted us to come again
and learn the natural wonders of their land,
to walk among the spirits of their dead. Our leaders
brutalised the cautious words we said with acid
accusation, absurdly claimed we lied to curry fame,
denied we ever found the site and trashed our
reputations. We died before the tempest came.
Our spirits wandered in the night and wilted
in the dawn, we hid within the pile of sticks
beside the tree adorned with words we
wrote: ‘Hope & Justice found this Land
and ceded it was owned’
© I.D. Carswell