Bernard Hardy: ‘Obituary’
Obituary
The anthropoid measure of a coffin’s space
clasps her in its shape’s embrace
as liquid seeping from necrotic cells
turns joinery into a wooden well.
Worms tangle the focus of her eyes
as they eat the blackness of her lies,
annelid casts in two bony holes
detritus blinding their sockets’ fill.
How flexibly the wind-combed grass
parts around her memorial’s carved cartouche
as it unfolds a scroll texting death’s dimensions,
the metaphysics of its stone conventions.
On another headstone a mortal span
stems bright flowers in a watering can.
Bernard Hardy
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