Waking on the long haul
earphones perkily askew
like a skittled mantis
realise it was Traviata
the lisping, wistful trance
that slipped between my ear and sleep
not the glory of the voice
but your rhapsodic face
that first time I saw you listening
face uplifted, aloft
I could only watch
as you flew
and even then
day two
there would be no other face
between me and dream.
Bruce Pascoe is of Bunurong, Yuin, Tasmanian heritage. He is a board member of First Languages Australia. Past Secretary Bidwell-Maap Aboriginal Nation. published and edited
Australian Short Stories magazine1982-1999, was winner Australian Literature Award (Shark) 1999, Radio National Short Story 1998, FAW Short Story 2010, Prime Minister’s Award for Literature (Yong Adult) 2013, NSW Premier’s Book of the Year, Dark Emu, 2016. His books include
Night Animals, Fox, Ruby Eyed Coucal, Shark, Ocean, Earth, Bloke, Cape Otway, Convincing Ground, Little Red Yellow and Black Book, Fog a dox and
Dark Emu.
Dark Emu the history of Aboriginal agriculture was published in 2014 and was shortlisted in the Victorian and Queensland Literature awards and won the NSW Premier’s book of the Year, 2016.
Sea Horse, young adult novel, Magabala 2015, Mrs Whitlam, YA, 2016. He lives in Gipsy Point, Far East Gippsland with, Lyn Harwood. Two children, three grandchildren.
Jasmeet Kaur Sahi is a Melbourne-based writer, editor and academic. She has written for the ABC, ArtsHub,
Eureka Street) and
Peril Magazine). Her interests are in the arts, feminism, food, and social justice and she is currently finding her feet in Australia’s literary landscape. She writes freelance and is a sessional academic at RMIT University, where she teaches nonfiction writing. She tweets @JasmeetSahi.
https://jasmeetsahi.wordpress.com/
