for James Fagan
Out where sun-sweet grasses bat their stalks
at stumps and living trunks of silver gum
slender leaves in susurrating fall of blooded green
and grey, where piney hulks are switching
misty arms to fencing sky and cockatoosbreak succour from the scratch of sappy cones
before shrilling departure, whump of wings
and flash of jewelly comb, where jumping jodies
teem cyrillic etchings over littered bark
and dew's unparalleled horizon softenseven raking steel that hunkers idly
by corrugated rounds of wisdom's error
roofless and raw, where treelings bend
as sails to weather's lick and all description
loosens in its scaly bed to flyuprooted from the facing page of this
encyclopedic echo and assay, my brother
humming for the sake of things and hurling
twigs and lichen stones far into blue
as he imagines reels to catch the crashof matter's weight in foliage and field.
You sound he says like a bloody angel.
On as cloud comes scudding from hills
toward the coast with metal salt
fizzing upon our tongues, adventurepromised in broken bough and ragged sheer
of wire, riffing on every sighted rook
and keeping step for step to contours learned
by rote or road, wheeling drift of flies
robbing focus as they hug his wakebillowing as smoke in glancing light,
on to cross alchemic ground between
this paddock and the next where diesel
slops from cans and technicolour pesticides
seep colloidal ruin, on as evening's rainbegins to deck the slickening posts
and polish knotted iron enfolding
nominal lines of residence, as startled sheep
retreat in jerky trot to safer quarters
only to start again with bleating stutterand gallop, on as shadows gather
palming lumps of rock from hand to hand
never stopping neither seeking home
but circling displaced and distant,
ever close, the cool world closing in.
- 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