We’d often see Rory outside the shed trying to classify
the clouds coming in on the evening wind — clouds
he thought were the farm’s clip of fine-grained wool.
On clear blue days he’d strike match after match
and try to class the smoke. My Aunt would say,
‘There’s Rory again, tricking ghosts.’ She’d told
me years ago, anthrax had turned his arms and legs
black as land stubbed with fire — wool-sorter’s disease
they called it then. These days he’ll look up, sigh,
walk as if he’s about to carry a bale’s weight of wool
towards a skirting table, his fingers feeling air
as if he were testing the wool fat, the tightness
of the crimp, inspecting it for burr and frib.
The shearers tease him, say his mind’s turned soft
as felt. Some days when the sky is full of wispy,
teased-out cirrus, Rory will say that some new shed-hand
has forgotten to sweep away the britch wool
left from the shearing. Sometimes you can hear him
auctioning off his bales, his prices unyielding, his tone
as twangy as a ring of blowflies. Winter mornings
he’s out with his arms raised up into a dense batting of fog.
On summer days he’ll be reaching towards a haze,
even bushfire smoke, or looking into the distance
for stray clouds, ready to coax them towards him
like orphaned lambs. Once one of the shearers stuck
a mess of dags and cotted wool to Rory’s head,
then took to him with rusty shears to do some wigging.
My Uncle punched the man so hard he reeled
round the yard like a whether with the ryegrass staggers.
Sometimes — when we catch Rory looking up
at the sky at a line of cumulus coming in — we smile
and say, ‘There’s Rory wool gathering again.’
- 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