It’s one of those hot days in the Alice,
I run into Neville outside the bottle-shop
He’s got a cask of coolibah.
“Hey bunjee, bunjee. Come and sit down with me.
Talk some stories.”So we go down and join a mob
In the riverbed.
Nev knows everyone,
I get introduced—
His whitefellow bunjee,
His brother-in-law.
No barriers down here in the river,
The grog will take care of that.We sit in the shadow of an old gum
The shimmering mirage of Alice Springs
Hums in the distance, and
The grog is warm now, like the day.
“All that Captain Cook stuff,” says Maurice,
As the MacDonnel Ranges sit and wait
For this town to blow away.Maurice goes off to buy more grog,
Returns with a carton,
Green cans and we’re all Irish,
Pirates, all of us,
Grog faces floating
With out bloated stories
In this riverbed
Of broken glass.The day passes,
Like it was meant to pass,
Without problems,
Except Mary and Scotty start yelling at each other.
You fucking bastard. Fuck you, she yells.
Fuck you. Fuck you, he answers.
They are throwing stuff at each other.
Too much noise.
We’re trying to drink.
They wander away in a circling dance,
Falling over, yelling.Scotty must have got lucky with a stone,
Because Mary lurches back,
Her head bleeding
And lunges at Beth.
Calls her a fucking bitch
For fucking her man.Scotty knows what’s good for him,
He’s done a disappearing act.
Mary trips over and falls in the sand.
“Go on. Get out of here.”
She’s crazy that one, I’m told confidentially.Ah, the river.
The water comes down sometimes,
And all this love gets washed away.
- 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