my son says "shadows can draw really well; but they don't do faces." we look at the maps of ourselves coastlines clearly articulated on the warming grey and rippled sea of the footpath On another day, I watched shadows ooze in the river organic and slippery - set adrift somehow by the flat push of … Continue reading The Cartography of Shadows
Today, in a big furniture store, my husband and I were walking down the rows of couches quietly making jokes about some of the settees in relation to the relative tininess of our home. At a desk sat a man (obviously an employee), chin in hands, aware of us passing by but not actually looking … Continue reading The people you never meet
After her nightmare the silence settles around my ear drums like the lowest thrumming of a tuneless guitar I stroke my daughter’s hair and feel the stillness of a million leaves and blades of grass and ants' legs outside the window. I don’t feel afraid yet my pulse fills my whole head dizzily. In the … Continue reading Support Networks
when you're here i want to dance with you hold you in my arms feel the rush of you, your whispers in my hair. your breath carrying secrets of the far-off ocean, your embrace ticklish my clothes disheveled, my nostrils flared. i can hear you now whispering jokes in the dark you don't play favourites … Continue reading The Easterly
Mosquitoes can be really annoying: stingy and itchy and bloodsucking and whiny and potential malaria spreaders. There's not much to love... But if the world had no mosquitoes would it still be the same world? It could mean the end of frogs and spiders and therefore, the end of little birds and bigger birds and … Continue reading The pieces we wish away…
the leaf corkscrews twisting light a falling flicker was Cerberus born with three heads? or did more grow as life tossed him more to snarl at? an orange flower trumpet on a gust of breeze bedecks the dog's soft, white ear did Medusa always have snake hair? or did her brain revolt - every loved … Continue reading Just some ponderings…
a cathedral the ceiling incandescent tangerine webbed with translucent veins in liminal reds and oranges this cocooning space clad coolly in rubber-like sheaths opening full impetuous lips to the tossing blue here the bee's humble palace
in three afternoonsi watch my kidsflourish in the swimming pool(like spring this year)all wetand on fast-forward.they're learning by gamesnot instruction -the simple freedomto figure it out.their porpoising and laughteris sweet reliefa kind of nostalgia:summers with my grandparents,blue-lipped cousins,and the solid red-brick warming panof the garage wall.and also a distractionfrom my dross thoughtsgloomy and tiredas a … Continue reading By the Pool
A man with a young son waves in a friendly way and joins us where puppy has flopped in grassy shade. We chat briefly. He is a property manager, organising tradies for an empty rental property just over the road. When a tradie arrives, he gestures to his little boy “Would you mind... just while … Continue reading Trust – the how of it.
And so we created an eagle gong of fencing wire and a lid of iron but will it protect the geese for long? We hoped for a tinny windswept song to chime across valley and river stone. And so we created an eagle gong To strike itself with a haunting dong and keep the eagles … Continue reading The Eagle Gong
