Rita Tognini



The Sixth Sister

One of the sculptured female figures, called caryatids, that held up the Erechtheion, an ancient temple on the north side of the Acropolis dedicated to the goddess Athena, was brought to England by Lord Elgin and is presently housed in …

Posted in 116: REMEMBER | Tagged

Deaf Sentences

The audiogram maps my soundscape, plots landslides in high frequencies. The audiologist tells me I hear like the elder I hope to be in twenty years, or more; says my cochlear hair cells are in disorder— dead or distorted, their …

Posted in 109: NO THEME 12 | Tagged

Landscape with Family

Karri keep watch over mill town, basin bulldozed of trees. Rows of timber houses, weatherboard and corrugated iron corralled by closed-picket fences. Gardens where weeds spread disorder. On the dirt road a family poses for a photo, a triangle of …

Posted in 104: KIN | Tagged

Stand-off

Prague Spring Photograph, 1968 The Prague crowd jostles a tank– soldiers, just boys, at the gun turret. Legs stretched out, feet crossed, one seems relaxed, but a tense torso and Kalashnikov negate the casual pose. His comrade’s leg dangles over …

Posted in 93: PEACH | Tagged

In the Belly of the Whale

If Jonah’s whale swallowed an ocean liner it would become a roving Atlantis — a doubly submerged city crossing from equator to Antarctic from Arctic to Tropic of Cancer. Would propellers pollute acoustic channels scramble the whale’s sonic songs, strand …

Posted in 91: MONSTER | Tagged