I don’t want to watch the new hit series
inspired by the action-adventure-survival-horror
video game franchise about the zombie end
of the world, which everyone is raving about
because even though the gays still die in the end
they have a long and tender relationship
before their tear-jerking conclusion.
I don’t want to watch it, even though as a teen
I was keen on post-apocalyptic fiction
about atom bombs and nuclear winters
and shadows burnt on walls in (what I called)
Hiro-shee-ma, though I knew the threat
was real and terrifying and afterwards
I couldn’t sleep or had radioactive dreams.
Back then I had the confidence or naivete
to identify with the lead, the character
we travelled with and felt for and who might
see terrible things and may suffer and might
behave pathetically and/or heroically but
would somehow see it through to the end.
I am more easily scared now, it feels too close –
not the zombies, just the preposterous frailty of it all
and with more perspective I know in my liver
I could just as easily, in fact, am even more likely
to be a bit-part: perhaps ‘Woman on Street no. 2’,
who is not even the first to be bitten or infected,
or stabbed or eaten, just a nameless sacrifice
to the plot exposition. I don’t want to watch
disaster movies either when my safety so far
feels like dumb luck and I know that bushfires
and floods don’t discriminate. Yesterday I watched
the glorious rococo towers of a thunderstorm
steaming in from the south-west at sunset and
the gum trees waving new growth from this year’s rain
and the green beads of fruit forming on
the tomato plants in the garden and the limbs
of children. Even though the children aren’t mine
and the notion of beauty in the ephemeral is
oh-so-tired, their beauty isn’t. The transience
is a seasoning so piquant I can’t swallow it
and in the dramatic light I remember that you
and I and ‘Woman on Street No.2’ are each
the main character in our own limited series
and sometimes we travel with or feel for each other
and I might see terrible things and I may suffer
and I might behave pathetically and/or heroically
and somehow I will see it through to the end.
- 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