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Hello, I’m Tricia Dearborn. I’m going to be reading two poems. The first one is about that awkward situation where you’ve broken up with someone, but for some reason you still move in the same social circles and it features a bit of retro technology. It’s called Are we there yet?
……………………………
Are we there yet?
my cassette deck on the back seat
plays your favourites, taped
from the radio
I’m singing along
to songs I haven’t heard
since ’74
…………..
the year we lay, pale-limbed and small,
in beds in different parts of England
each with a Christmas-new
transistor radio
pressed to a child-sized ear
……………
last night
we shared a bed
for convenience only
…………….
you slept cocooned, your ear
pressed to the pillow
back turned to
my leaning skin
……………..
it’s raining now; I squint
through the swish of wipers
as you twist
to get something
from the car’s back seat
……………..
you and me babe, you sing
accidentally in my ear
how about it?
……………..
……………..
and this is for anyone who’s ever had an MRI … it’s called
……………..
Scan
when you enter the room, the machine
greets you
with the gentle doof-doof
of the liquid helium pump
…………………..
nothing that would prepare you
for the harmonising jackhammers
that set to once you’ve been
slithered feet-first into its belly
………………………
industrial headphones
barely make a dent
the music that’s meant to calm you
pipes in pathetically in between scans
a few notes of Bach or Handel
before humanoid voices break in
to intone at incredible volumes
BADA BADA BADA BADA and
DOW! DOW! DOW! DOW! DOW! DOW!
…………………………..
you wonder if the knowledge gained
is worth being almost-encased in a looming metal doughnut
soused in huge and rapidly shifting magnetic fields
this intermittent onslaught of sound,
the unpleasant electrical crawling sensation
in pelvis and genitals, and over the skin
……………………………
which the radiologist assures you
you did not feel, and do not
still feel
over arms and hands days later
…………………………………………..
ABOUT TRICIA DEARBORN:
Tricia Dearborn is an award-winning poet and short story writer whose work has appeared in literary journals and anthologies in Australia, overseas and online. She was joint winner of the Poets Union Poetry Prize in 2008, and has received two new work grants from the Literature Board of the Australia Council. In 2012, her second collection of poetry, The Ringing World, will be published by Puncher & Wattmann, and her first collection of short stories will be published by Spineless Wonders. She lives in Sydney and earns a living as a freelance book editor.
‘My first stay at Varuna was in winter 1998, as one of the poets selected for the first poetry residential mentorship. I lay in a hot bath (in that fabulous green bathtub), with the bathroom window wide open, watching steam peel off the water in strange, delightful and grotesque formations. Eventually I ran downstairs to get a pencil and paper and hopped back in to write what became the first draft of the title poem of my first collection of poetry, Frankenstein’s Bathtub. Another bonus of the stay was the fascinating (not to mention scandalous) conversation at mealtimes.’ Tricia Dearborn
PUBLICATIONS:
The Ringing World (Puncher & Wattman, forthcoming 2012), poetry collection
Short Story Collection (Spineless Wonders, forthcoming 2012)
Frankenstein’s Bathtub (Interactive Press, 2001), poetry collection
Individual poems in anthologies including Australian Poetry since 1788 (UNSW Press, Oct. 2011), Best Australian Poems 2009 (Black Inc.), Best Australian Poetry 2008 (UQP) and Out of the Box: Contemporary Australian Gay and Lesbian Poets (Puncher & Wattman, 2009), and in literary journals including Meanjin, HEAT, Island, Overland, Westerly and Cordite. Poem selected for PROD! (poets ride online dangerously) 2011
CONTACT:
Email: tricia_dearborn@iprimus.com.au
Related websites:
http://shortaustralianstories.com.au/ (Spineless Wonders website)
www.australianpoetry.org/programs/prod/ (PROD!)
www.gleebooks.com.au (stockists for Frankenstein’s Bathtub)
Varuna has been funded by the Australia Council to produce a Varuna Writer-a-Day “app”. When we have recorded 365 writers the app will be made available on the iTunes store. In the meantime, if you subscribe to this blog you can receive a daily reading via your email and even have this directed to your mobile phone.
Your writing is beautiful. Thank you for the tiny glimpse… Anne
Thanks, Anne! I enjoyed your piece too. And it reminded me a bit of a poem I wrote called ‘Taking Margaret Atwood for a cut-and-colour’ (I took a collection of her poetry with me to the hairdressers …) Good luck with the novel.
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