AustLit

'Andrew blinks, head down, eyes locked on his breakfast plate and the expressionist blur of pink bacon and bright yellow split fried egg, bleeding a toxic cadmium pool of yolk into his toast. In an attempt to curtail any further chaos, Andrew makes two easy phone calls: one to work to inform them he needs a week of sick leave, one to Chrissy's school for the same; digging through school notes before realising he has a smartphone, flicking through web results to find the office number, stumbling through voice options-on a state school reception board, really? "Dad, do pigs have tiny brains?" Andrew has thrown peanut butter toast on Chrissy's plate and is staring at his own bacon and egg breakfast, already cooling because school lunch needs to be done and homework is due today, maybe tomorrow. "Yes, pigs are cute!" Andrew has trouble imagining a pig in the wild, until a strangely vivid image of a boar from an Asterix comic springs to mind, followed by cartoon roast pig ribs.' (Publication abstract)