This story was published in The Big Issue in January 2013. A shorter version was broadcast on ABC 774 on 20 January 2017. IT IS the day before Australia Day 2012 and a man is asking me the name of this part of the country. The traditional name. It is six in the morning, on […]
Thanks to Hobsons Bay Libraries, a little reflection of mine is part of a booklet celebrating the importance of libraries.
This is a very (very, very, very) light poem. It’s like raindrops in a sun shower. The words almost disappear before you’ve read them. Every twelve hours If we could Sunrise and sunset Dawn and dusk Togs and towel Midday and midnight If you wish High noon and high moon Every twelve hours If […]
Bill Bailey’s nephews Bill Bailey’s two nephews Walk the streets Of the inner west Together Millers Road Mason Street Melbourne Road Bill Bailey’s nephews Wear their hair long The recession from their foreheads Sometimes hidden by caps One black One red Blackshaws Road Maddox Road The Avenue Mid-twenties Students? Out of work? Casual jobs? […]
Miss Communique The wind shifts The smoke signal drifts Miss communique Dark clouds gather Rain on its way The storm Drowns out The beating of the drums The pigeon flaps Into bad weather Its instincts turn haywire Relay runners drop their batons The town-crier is crook Too hoarse to call The news of the fall […]
Thanks to ABC Radio Melbourne for broadcasting this story on The Friday Revue, as part of its Melbourne Postcard series, on 30 August, 2019. Listen to it here! Dear Andrea, How’s your school-crossing treating you these days? Kids and cars all okay? The cold weather broke the ice at my new spot. For […]
First published in The Big Issue, edition 594 (23 August to 5 September 2019). I am laying face-down on the physio bench talking table-tennis with the intern, Dan. (Or is it Dane, or Dean or Dave? It’s hard to put a face to a name when you’re looking at the floor.) I’m telling Dan that […]
January 29, 2013
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