Bird has died of fear in her cage
cuttle bone’s harriedher mate’s chattering at his mirror
bashing the bellour child studies ants migrating for water
she pincers a lagger and licks him all up
follows the rest to their nest with a stick –
it is her naturethey all die so easy
not like usI’m reading my guts coiled in the usual
usual shapes but casting
a differing inference
and askPeople like us who read things into things,
Who really knows? What the hell?You’re drinking in the kitchen,
the whites of your eyes roll back
like rearing stallions.I want to know whose butts are in the yard
seeing we don’t smoke anymore?
Whose butts?They are burning leaves again, you say.
It’s a kind of meditation
inviting fire or keeping it away
getting rid of the rubbish
is an occupation
for these ends of days –
Dig a hole, I say.The oil stain in the drive has Rorschach wings.
I scry the bathwater we kept for the plants.
The dog laps at it and growls,
I pull out the plug.I can read the signs but can’t do anything
about them. The past is here and the future, so
I read the toilet bowl and the dirty
hand basin and the drips from the tap
are very telling
I don’t even need
to really see or listen
as the evidence is here.
Then I flush it away.An ant holds a bead of water,
his mandibles quiver.The dog is frothing with snail killer,
next door’s cat shat
in the kid’s sand pit.The washing stinks— smalls, colours, whites,
delicates soaking, old blood
stains set.It’s getting hotter and we talk about rain
as if it is the only topic, rain or flood.
What we’d do if we got washed away.How long we could hold our breath
what we’d grab on to.
- 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