The first transgressions have always occurred
In vehicles. Voyages emit new laws of the wind
Clothed in stolen gold—the hero beyond tragedy
Stands on the shore having discovered nothing.
Shield islands—plumes of headland nodding nearer
Farther off breaking coastline vanishing patternless
Into the present. Long shadows of oarstrokes never
To strike the horizon which ever smiled the same
Sad smile of the hand that believes it can calculate
Distance in clear intervening space. Pacifist isle
That invented the very idea of geometry—
—the first diagram whose angles haven’t yet
Disentangled violence from sight. Flowering stone.
Fluorescent time. Take this sea to be equal parts
Wedding march and funeral dirge. On days like this
It can feel as if the island vain in its entirety
Has ripped free in a storm of its moorings—
A postage stamp cut from its envelope to
Commemorate the astral transit from subatomic
Particle to the vast millimetres of microplastic
Oceans. Nothing for it but to drift like an
Anchor planted ceremoniously inland—and yet—
What choice in the land where equations
Governing fluids are more fundamental than
Quantum mechanics. When the most critical rate
Limiting factors are the speed and silence at which
you can slip through water—ave maris—.Must I make the same errors of modern legend—as
Crane took Copernicus to say—simply by sailing
in a new direction you could enlarge the world.
As though official buildings reserved the right to be
Shot towers from which lead is cast into and
Becomes the abyss. The sun sank its bridge and
Came straight back—the stars lean closer to see
Watershed waterlevels that are enough to set
Driftwood alight. The pain that was my wrists
Deep in Antarctic ice I thought the glass stem
Of gorse rigged into burning twine. And even just
Unfurling my palm—to lay flat my second nature’s
Fist—for five minutes has become a stretch.
You wouldn’t believe what controlling umbrellas
In the wind has done for my strength. In ice floes
Of traffic—my car of the future fitted with a snorkel
Staring up the threads of rain like gun barrels.
All of us in the ocean’s wake pining for the most
Alienating path home as though every lighthouse
A monument to who you were
not there for.
- 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