in the city things were going well
I knew I’d be home again soon
standing outside my own front door listening
for any sound inside –
to see if anyone might be home, you see –
but there never wasthe blue car takes the right hand turn
at the intersection
striking the same precision of movement
as a singer can produce with sound
a long falling note for instance
uncanny in the way it recalls
the never to be found body of Federico Garcia Lorca
the way water falls back in a fountain
after it has jetted upwardsand that’s when the opera began to form itself
as it were
around ghosts of the twentieth century
a mother of seven children who took them fishing
every weekend to keep them off the streets
and to feed their hungry mouths
and here’s the operatic bit
when they each grew up at a certain age
each turned into a kind of fish
so that one was a cod another a bass another a snapper
a flounder a shark
(which really isn’t a fish but which brims with oil)
a sprat and a terakihiin her senility demented she wanders
the lonely shore
and her lament opens the story
this same shore was where two old chiefs
sat by a fire many years earlier
debating who had been the better warrior
in their youth and they sing the song
old warriors sing:
I might have skewered you through the heart
and cooked your bones for breakfast
but I chose to spare your life
and for that reason you sit beside me here todayas the tide runs out
connections connections I hear you say
to which I could reply
it’s all part of a dream
but no, sadly, it’s true
no dream only the heartthe days are new
as they always are
and the times are easy
which they always aren’t
the blue car is just ahead of me
as I drive west
I notice there are seven children wedged inside
and a little old lady is hunched over the wheel
speeding along I see her wind down the window
and she throws something out
splat
it smacks into my windscreen and bounces onto the bonnet
a trembling flounder flipping its tail
I’m forced to pull over because
the fish has exuded such a slimy substance
I cannot see the way ahead
and in cleaning the windscreen
and standing bewildered with the dying flounder
in my arms I lose track of the blue carthis would be science fiction if
two chiefs in full war regalia had not
walked on by
so to speak
as I was cleaning the thick glutinous substance
from the glass on which it left behind a tarnishing
as a soul touched or crippled by the power of the divinethat might have been my own description of myself
as I stood scribbling at my front door
a voice inside was pouring out dictation
as I filled the pages of my notebook
hastily scrawled and awkwardly formed words
the nature of which I found hard to connect
with the evening itselfthe purplish air was almost black
the day was departing like a chief
stepping into his canoe on a lake edge
and heading out across the big water
as I fumbled for my key and opened
and crossed the threshold into the
colonial opera which turns out to be
a modus operandi for inveigling mediocrity
in a once-heroic peoplecall it progress call it success
call it the pasteurization of infinity
leave your long hair at the gate
we are expecting uncomplicated guests tonight
who will congratulate us on our achievements
since settlement
after the dinner the lawyer went on and on
like nobody’s business
he clammed his fork into the three-tiered sponge
which was already on the wobble
the pandemonium began to wail of better days
the harmonium bellowed out old lays
men slimmed their wallets towards sentimentality
women donned masks of old disguststhis was the big scene in the marquee
before darkness crept across and under wanton trees
life sketched out figures of apotheosis
and flagrante
summer lawns wet but not with dew
and grass on which crumpled combs abandoned dawn
miscegenation begins at home
the shirt and tie mother nailed to the ironing board
becomes a new design for a national flag
we learn how to say hallelujah in all the languages
of the Empire
it turns out the father of the baby was a hats-off kind of guy
who departed last year to be a missionary
in Africa
his face is on the donation box as it is passed around
at church
your cousin tells you he knows a hole
you can slip through to take a short cut
it’s a portal to the thing you cannot imagine but know is there
and the very idea of “short cut”
causes you to burst into tears for the relief it promises
you don’t care it there’s a bull in the paddock
or a beehive under the macrocarpas
nothing will be able to catch you as you sprint
oh you are and oh you have
a certain flounce that never was seen before
in this universe
- 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