Merlinda Bobis
An argument in glass
For Jenni Kemarre Martiniello,Aboriginal glassmaker
As you hold me,you think your fingers knowI’m glass magic,this slip and slide on cool satin,then suddenly I’m waterand an eternity of greens —O song of sea flowers,you make drowningbeautiful.Or so you say.
But what of other shadesor shadows?
From umber to gumnut brown,we are the ancient coralsthat you presume are de ... (read more)
Lucy afloat
After the scattering of ashesPulpit Rock, 26 November 2014
And then the lighton these layers of grief,grit, glowthat make a rock.
From blinding whiteto ochre soft, then rustand pinkrunning into each other —who knows which colour came firstor if the glow camebefore the gritbefore the grief?
Not even the rock knowsthe secrets of its chronology.
It is we who lookwho think we knowor ... (read more)
The colour of eyes
For Banduk Marika, Aboriginal artist
1. After your story of the funeral, August 1991
Black, Banduk, is the colour of eyeslike night shrunkwhen grandma tidies after grief.Perhaps she could not spillto stain the room.
Black, Banduk,this quaver fistedin her throat –it has no moon,it aches with too much swallowing.There is no voiceto bruise the air.
You thinkshe wills it neat ... (read more)
After the Grand Canyon
18 October 2014
It’s an accidentof composition: sun, sky, bird.White orb on storm greypunctuated by a raven –but which composes which,and which is accidental?Is it the suna holesucking in a bird,or Icarus aboutto singe the sun?Against the greyboth soft and sinister,anything is possible.Look: barely a thumbspanbetweensun and birdbefore the answer is given.Enough ... (read more)