Michael Crane: One Day in the Country
One day in the country
The angry horse with the red eyes
comes charging towards him.
He is frozen with fear
but he looks straight at it.
It’s all part of the great charade:
who will surrender, the horse or him.
It has a huge head with a white blaze
and he starts speaking to it
telling it they can’t go on like this.
He walks away and it follows him
through the overgrown paddock,
trotting slowly to the stable.
He feeds it apples and hay
and puts a warm blanket over it
and then goes home to sleep
while down the road the horse
dreams of apples, fresh hay
and a world without humans.
Michael Crane
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