There’s liquid water on Saturn’s
moon, plumes vent from its south
pole. We’re waiting for somebody
to crawl out onto the reflective
tectonically deranged terrain,
hoping to nail God to dark matter.
Wherever you live, First Peoples’
painted faces search for evidence
of a collective past. In town halls,
hard edged abstractions of sacred
ceremonies hang on whitewashed
walls. Your migration occurs an infinite
number of times. Hordes of lachrymal
ancestors walk from communal fires
to factories. Natives are made
on process lines. Metal ores burn,
metal feeds metal—in overtime to zero
hour—the language of solidarity, brutal
upper hands, and visceral fictions.
There is a restlessness in you. Wrestle
your dialect to the ground. Wake
from the dreaming—of Sicily,
of San Vito, martyr, patron saint
of the ancient port.Here is the outline of a forest,
the ghost of our Californian Bungalow.
I catch white butterflies in plastic
bags and pin them to a tree (of symbols).
Tell me it’s cruel, animals grieve too.
How many silences, how many memories
hide in a butterfly’s wing?
It’s the third house in the subdivision,
where you improvise and merge
into Colonial farmhouse vernacular
and announce, I’m going to die here
like an old dog, under the kitchen table.
We worship at the altar of David
Attenborough, laugh at old ideas, dream
of UFOs and life on other planets. Watch
the replay of the ‘incident’. A faceless man
wears black trousers and a white shirt,
holds shopping bags in each hand,
stands before a column of tanks.
He looks like you from behind. Tell me
there’s nothing to fear. A powerline
snaps in the windstorm, pours white
electricity into asphalt. Call the fire
brigade even though there isn’t a fire.I will crack this dream wide
open. I see your ephemeral wonder.
A disembodied voice announces Alpha
Centauri C, the brightest star,
is gravitationally bound to two
other stars, but appears as a single
star to our unaided future eye.
On the East side, plough your farm,
on the west side, the Californian Bungalow
looks like a church, the octagonal spire
drops dead butterflies on me.
The blending of senses—Listen
to the colour, smell the Sun,
taste the viscous wind
through the leaves, formless
shadows of time itself—then a mouthful
of your Mediterranean Sea.
The Californian Bungalow stands
on the frozen edge of ancient
Enceladus, ninth moon of Saturn.
The new suburb sits in the crater,
liquid water beneath the ice, fracturing
with the strain of time
and tides. This is your best year.
You are the traveller, the immigrant
again—full of knowing.
- 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