Prelude:
Is it really true that one can’t change?
said Oscar Wilde, whose ode to metamorphosis got stuck
in the rot of a painting, while the youth
stood with features smooth as the beginning.
Chorus:
Fitzroy, Melbourne, the kind of strip that strips everyone down, right to the bone.
A ute, a traveller, and no way home.
Traveller:
What was a ute doing in Fitzroy? Hadn’t they cleaned this place up?
Chorus:
A traveller pulled by a rope of longing. Scrap that. She had no control.
The payload: a swarm of blue puppies, black spots turning eyes into chasms.
Their mother lying snout to floor. Her teats, ten props abandoned.
She dipped one hand over the edge. She did. The ute squeaked.
Traveller:
What am I doing?
Chorus:
A question she didn’t ask. We were there:
the mew of the puppies wriggling over one another.
Their necks tied to the floor. A series of black chains.
A rusted bolt. A medusa of pups we thought.
The mother doing nothing. Was she stoned?
Stand back, we said.
Too late, a melee of tongues and she was over, the traveller,
over the back, frolicking in her own
what? Mad max trip?
Or did she believe she was Actaeon,
testing the fidelity of the hounds?
Traveller:
What was it about this place? It was nothing. It just propelled people.
Like the way the sun, weak from winter, got taken over by a man
whose thick shadow I now wore.
Man:
What do you think you’re doin’?
Hands off the dogs.
Hands off.
Chorus:
She turned, smiling, as if it was a joke, as if she would see someone she knew.
The shadow shook his head. She was the type
he could see right through.
Man:
They’re farm dogs.
Traveller:
They’re puppies.
Man:
They’re farm dogs.
Traveller:
But it’s just.
Man:
Don’t touch ’em, right. Now git out now. Git.
Chorus:
She picked up the wronged hand with her right and removed it to her side. She slipped out of the ute. The rust fair sliced her in half.
The puppies swooned in their chains.
Traveller:
But I have one at home.
Chorus
She should stop
Man:
These here, right, are farm dogs.
Chorus:
He spat. He did. The length of the street seemed to rip
from its spine, torn like so no-one could see. She faced the shadow. He in his hat,
the things below brimmed in darkness.
She thought she saw a mouth, but it could have been a scab.
I’m guilty, she thought.
Man:
Hands off the dogs.
Chorus:
Though they were (we checked).
Traveller:
Why hadn’t I changed? All this time away and I get cracked up by a ute.
As if my home was some imaginary farm. As if my soul had been swapped
for a few foreign coins, and down here, in some wallet, my face could be burning.
Chorus:
It’s doubtful. In any case she fled, as travellers do, the scene went on without her.
We were there, we took a statement:
Man’s Statement:
She was as dumb as any city, I swear
that’s what I thought.
I scratched my hat. The day could wait.
I had saved a seat in the café and there would be time to savour it.
I mean, the bit about the farm dogs.
And the bit about the ute.
Chorus:
A truly cunning creature, man
Aristophanes’ birds once sang.
Some thwart the gods, others their husbands,
but this man picks out strangers:
all cunning for cunning’s sake.
Wait, we swear, one more thing …
Man:
The altercation but
that was truth.
- 115: SPACE
with A Sometimes
114: NO THEME 13
with J Toledo & C Tse
113: INVISIBLE WALLS
with A Walker & D Disney
112: TREAT
with T Dearborn
111: BABY
with S Deo & L Ferney
110: POP!
with Z Frost & B Jessen
109: NO THEME 12
with C Maling & N Rhook
108: DEDICATION
with L Patterson & L Garcia-Dolnik
107: LIMINAL
with B Li
106: OPEN
with C Lowe & J Langdon
105: NO THEME 11
with E Grills & E Stewart
104: KIN
with E Shiosaki
103: AMBLE
with E Gomez and S Gory
102: GAME
with R Green and J Maxwell
101: NO THEME 10
with J Kinsella and J Leanne
100: BROWNFACE
with W S Dunn
99: SINGAPORE
with J Ip and A Pang
97 & 98: PROPAGANDA
with M Breeze and S Groth
96: NO THEME IX
with M Gill and J Thayil
95: EARTH
with M Takolander
94: BAYT
with Z Hashem Beck
93: PEACH
with L Van, G Mouratidis, L Toong
92: NO THEME VIII
with C Gaskin
91: MONSTER
with N Curnow
90: AFRICAN DIASPORA
with S Umar
89: DOMESTIC
with N Harkin
88: TRANSQUEER
with S Barnes and Q Eades
87: DIFFICULT
with O Schwartz & H Isemonger
86: NO THEME VII
with L Gorton
85: PHILIPPINES
with Mookie L and S Lua
84: SUBURBIA
with L Brown and N O'Reilly
83: MATHEMATICS
with F Hile
82: LAND
with J Stuart and J Gibian
81: NEW CARIBBEAN
with V Lucien
80: NO THEME VI
with J Beveridge
57.1: EKPHRASTIC
with C Atherton and P Hetherington
57: CONFESSION
with K Glastonbury
56: EXPLODE
with D Disney
55.1: DALIT / INDIGENOUS
with M Chakraborty and K MacCarter
55: FUTURE MACHINES
with Bella Li
54: NO THEME V
with F Wright and O Sakr
53.0: THE END
with P Brown
52.0: TOIL
with C Jenkins
51.1: UMAMI
with L Davies and Lifted Brow
51.0: TRANSTASMAN
with B Cassidy
50.0: NO THEME IV
with J Tranter
49.1: A BRITISH / IRISH
with M Hall and S Seita
49.0: OBSOLETE
with T Ryan
48.1: CANADA
with K MacCarter and S Rhodes
48.0: CONSTRAINT
with C Wakeling
47.0: COLLABORATION
with L Armand and H Lambert
46.1: MELBOURNE
with M Farrell
46.0: NO THEME III
with F Plunkett
45.0: SILENCE
with J Owen
44.0: GONDWANALAND
with D Motion
43.1: PUMPKIN
with K MacCarter
43.0: MASQUE
with A Vickery
42.0: NO THEME II
with G Ryan
41.1: RATBAGGERY
with D Hose
41.0: TRANSPACIFIC
with J Rowe and M Nardone
40.1: INDONESIA
with K MacCarter
40.0: INTERLOCUTOR
with L Hart
39.1: GIBBERBIRD
with S Gory
39.0: JACKPOT!
with S Wagan Watson
38.0: SYDNEY
with A Lorange
37.1: NEBRASKA
with S Whalen
37.0: NO THEME!
with A Wearne
36.0: ELECTRONICA
with J Jones