lou verga: ‘work -> home’
work -> home
she says the words but forgets what they mean
stop looking at me please
these mice that squeal inside the cracks,
these mice like spinach leaves wilting in the heat,
like drowned teabags with misshapen strings
on a thirtieth-floor commission-flat balcony
an olive tree outgrows its fourth pot this month
and in the gravel the glass of a broken bottle
shines like hematite under the moon
outside an empty pub where a grandfather eats his moustache
a woman sleeps in your bed,
her shoulderblade is an overcast sky,
her hair is a dark stream
it falls on the carpet, then ripples and splays
she swivels around but she has no face
a riderless bike slinks up the side of a house
the stars gather between the powerlines
and nothing’s what you think it is
in the afternoon a man with a blank expression
walks backwards and wheels his vespa
a trail of pink ice cream spreads down the footpath,
a blue virgin mary stands…
Madam: Archbishop Fisher (July-August 2024) does not resist the attacks on his church by the political, social or scientific atheists and those who insist on not being told what to do.
Aug 29 2024
6 mins
To claim Aborigines have the world's oldest continuous culture is to misunderstand the meaning of culture, which continuously changes over time and location. For a culture not to change over time would be a reproach and certainly not a cause for celebration, for it would indicate that there had been no capacity to adapt. Clearly this has not been the case
Aug 20 2024
23 mins
A friend and longtime supporter of Quadrant, Clive James sent us a poem in 2010, which we published in our December issue. Like the Taronga Park Aquarium he recalls in its 'mocked-up sandstone cave' it's not to be forgotten
Aug 16 2024
2 mins