Writer-a-Day: Tricia Dearborn reading her poems “Are we there yet?” and “Scan”

Click on the arrow above to listen to Tricia’s reading.

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:

www.puncherandwattman.com/

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.