Notes, fragments, observations, and musings

  • Liminal Ground

    It’s a place most people walk past — a grassy, neglected depression and the only view is of a sports field, usually empty. The campus is large — there’s a lake, well-manicured quadrangles, and cafes. But I like it here. It’s quiet. The huge Moreton Bay Fig trees cast a deep shadow on the grass,…

  • The Last Sound

    The last sound they heard was a breath, released. They clung together, she in the pretty dress he bought for her birthday — her warm face buried in his neck. Her body shook, and he held her closer — then the world started to drift away. Slowly at first: the leaves floated lazily into the…

  • Predawn Rowers

    just before the light, something stirs It is the predawn, and the riversounds have started. The ferry’s deep thrum as it eases into the dock, and the plaintive cry of the bird I have not bothered to identify. It is a night bird. Soon, when the light comes, other birds will take over. The rowers’…

  • Controlled Descent

    I was born here — it’s the only world I’ve ever known, and it’s burning with me in it. Everything is shaking, me most of all. The alarms are all sounding but I can’t switch them off: I’m being crushed into my seat and the static is hissing in my ears, hateful. But the old…

  • Forget-Me-Not

    It’s night now, but when I sat for breakfast, it lay openon the table, a leatherbound journal, cream pagescovered in a woman’s hand, the writing smoothand clean, in blue ink, but I could not read it. The words were lithe, slipping out of mindas soon as they entered and in their wake wasa bafflement, a…