Steve Brock: Two Poems
alpha male
I read an article
about chimpanzees
how not all of them
want to be leader
odds are you can get bitten
& apparently some
are content to sit around
& do nothing much at all
at first I felt depressed
& know I wouldn’t
have made it in
the chimp world either
but later I wondered
what about the chimp poets?
if you look around the place
there are plenty of those too.
— Steve Brock
diggers
digging in the backyard
we find a toy soldier
what’s it for, Dad?
I tell my daughter
it belonged
to the little boy
who lived here before us
& I remember
the cries
of the family cat
half starved
climbing the screen door
to re-claim its residence
the $3000 water bill
the unpaid electricity & gas
the phone bill
council rates
credit card bills
& letters from lawyers
that still arrive
the letters from Social Services
& the card
left under the door
asking why
he hadn’t been to school
the holes
in the walls
& the yellow
nicotine-stained paint
I find another soldier
& imagine the scale
of the boy’s battle.
— Steve Brock
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