AustLit
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
Contents
-
The Water Vascular System,
single work
essay
(p. 6-7)'In this Ed(Comm)itorial I am going to write about sea stars, not because they’re in any way connected to this issue of Voiceworks, but because they’re cool and because almost everything about slugs is............................... truly horrifying.' (Introduction)
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A Short History of Serving the Wholeness in Each Other,
single work
essay
(p. 8-15)
'My mum lies on the couch in her flannel pyjama pants and fluffy grey Aldi jacket. The dog sits next to her with her head on the cushion. Mum has been a paediatric intensive care nurse for twenty-six years now, and says she has lost count of how many children she has withdrawn support on. I tell her that I am writing this piece on palliative care, and that I want to draw together the concepts of motherhood, nurturing, productivity, periods, death, care, Socrates and capitalism. I tell her that ninety-three per cent of palliative care nurses and sixty-two per cent of specialist palliative medicine physicians in Australia and New Zealand are women, and that they also make up the majority of unpaid carers. She says, 'I don't know, Abs. When I'm with a dying person there's no gender. It's just being there for them.' I tell her that I think death is like gardening, and read her a quote by Helene Cixous: 'It is women who weep... It is salted milk' Mum says, 'Who is Helene Cixous?' Quietly, I delete my paragraph on Socrates. She recommends two books that shaped her approach to end-of-life care: 'My Grandfather's Blessings' by Rachel Naomi Remen, and Being with Dying by Joan Halifax.' (Publication abstract)
- Beneath the Exoskeletoni"I’m up all night", single work poetry (p. 16-17)
- Be the Cowboyi"in a space", single work poetry (p. 30-32)
-
The Amateur,
single work
essay
(p. 33-38.)'It's dim inside, even with upwards of ten dinky orange lamps and miscellaneous light bulbs pitched around the room. The bar counter, heaving under meter-high stacks of CDs that all tilt to the left, would be a dark lacquered wood if I could see it.'
(Publication abstract)
- Monday Night Trashi"pinch handles of the rubbish bags", single work poetry (p. 39-40)
-
Hum Heart,
single work
short story
(p. 41-47)''I have much to tell you' and it begins with the bees...'
(Publication abstract)
- Falling up Stairsi"Stumble down Rockley", single work poetry (p. 48-49)
-
Pomegranates and Palimpsests,
single work
essay
(p. 51-57)'It began with small red seeds contained within a round liquid sack, and I gifted them to you on the day a distant relative of yours died. Delicately arranged like the cells of honeycomb against a pale membrane, you stared at the dark red fruit in your palm. It was then, in that exchange, that I wrote fictions of you in my head, about what you were and who you were, but it was really my glorified idea of what I had hoped you to be, it's my fault and I'm sorry. Some scholars say that it was really a pomegranate plucked from the Garden of Eden.' (Publication abstract)
- BMX Boy in a Broken Beach Towni"Pup churns up knuckly crunch,", single work poetry (p. 58-59)
-
The Mandarin,
single work
poetry
(p. 62-67)'At 5:43 am, just as she would have been coming out of her deepest sleep cycle, Sienna D'amico was struck and instantly killed by a meteorite, the upper quarter of her body all but vaporised...'
(Publication abstract)
- Bush Ponyi"when i had a pony he would run me into tree branches", single work poetry (p. 68-69)
-
The Slow Lane,
single work
essay
(p. 71-74)' I am twenty-one. I am eager, a hundred miles a minute. I am three jobs, vibrant, constantly in motion. My days are full and I am ravenous.'
(Publication abstract)
- Broadcasti"BREATHLESSLY we sink", single work poetry (p. 75-76)
-
Renovations,
single work
short story
(p. 83-89)'Everyone I know seems to be renovating...'
(Publication abstract)
- Masturbation of a Satyri"eeeeee the sound of rancid sugar decay of a vagina barking like a terrier beneath the", single work poetry (p. 90-91)
-
Thoughts and Feelings with Paul Keating,
single work
essay
(p. 93-99)'Don't text too often. don't text too infrequently. just don't text her, actually. wait for her to love you. but don't answer her calls during mercury retrograde.'
(Publication abstract)
