pdf download - Westerly Magazine

More documents

Recommendations

Info

left, would have risen and walked out on your endless recollections. But becauseof who you are, because of the past that binds us, I wait ... wait and watch asthe afternoon contracts, the hours shortening into minutes, the minutes into seconds- precious seconds that slip so easily through my wasted hands.MAGOLITERARY MAGAZINEIMAGO publishes established and new writersstories. poetry. features. interviews. reviewsSubscribe to: IMAGOPOBox 1335Fortitude Valley Q 4006$12.50 for two issues a year posted$10.00 student rate68WESTERLY, No.2, JUNE, 1989
ANNE SEYMOURThe Woman Next DoorShe moved in two weeks ago, the woman next door. When I saw the furniture van,I sent my two girls in to see if she needed anything. But she said no thank you,that's kind, but everything is under control. I haven't felt like getting dressed upand going in to say hello so I haven't met her yet. But I've seen her.She looks about my age: forty-seven. I saw her in the garden the day after shemoved in. She looked neat and tidy even when she was gardening, with her hairtied up in a pretty scarf. And she wore gardening gloves to protect her hands.My hands were shaking as I held the curtains apart ever so slightly to peep ather. Not because I was nervous: I've been rather tired and depressed lately and myhands shake a lot. They disgust me. Look at them! Worn and old, brown blotcheson the back. Veins sticking up like miniature fig-tree roots spreading over dry ground.The other day, I stroked one vein with my finger and watched the blood surge backand the tiny root thicken up again. It fascinated me. I did it again and again. I didit about thirteen times altogether.My finger nails are cracked and broken. It can't be because of house work; I can'tbe bothered doing more than the bare essentials these days.Just look around this kitchen! Breakfast dishes are still on the sink and a fly iswiping its feet on someone's soggy cornflake. The frying-pan smells of the greasyleft-overs of bacon and eggs. A half-biscuit lies in the dust between the refrigeratorand the cupboards. I tried to get it out with a broom handle the other day but Ionly succeeded in pushing it farther out of reach. I really need to pull the refrigeratorout and clean around it. Perhaps next week. I might have more energy then.The woman next door seems to have plenty of energy. In the garden the otherday, she worked fast, pulling out weeds and placing them in neat piles on the lawn.When she finished, she stood up and arched her back. She untied her scarf andshook out her curls.I felt my own hair. Thick like straw and sticking out. Like a birch broom in afit, my mother used to say when I was fourteen. That was a long time ago and mymother has been dead for years but my hair is just the same. Wild, like dry grassin the wind but grey now instead of gold. I always wanted to let my hair grow longwhen I was a girl but my parents wouldn't allow me to. They thought long hairwas untidy and my father used to cut it very short. Sometimes he made me lookso terrible that I didn't want to go to school. We had frightful rows about my hair.The next time I saw the woman next door was on Saturday morning. She rushedout to meet her son who had come to visit. (I had heard a car drive up and hadsneaked a look through the lounge-room curtains.) 1 could tell it was her son; helooked so much like her.I had a son. He would have been twenty-three yesterday. He died last year. Ofa form of cancer which gnawed away at him for four years. Everlasting years.Relentlessly sucking out his vitality, tearing him from me.WESTERLY, No.2, JUNE, 1989 69
Page 3 and 4:
CONTENTSWESTERLYVOLUME 34, No.2, JU
Page 5:
WESTERLYa quarterly reviewISSN 0043
Page 8 and 9:
JAN KEMPTo My Father, M.H.K.My fath
Page 10 and 11:
JAN KEMPThe GypsySuddenly before yo
Page 12 and 13:
WONG PHUI NAMA Death in the WardThe
Page 14 and 15:
WONG PHUI NAMCousinI had to call to
Page 16 and 17:
WONG PHUI NAMObitIt is as thin smok
Page 18 and 19:
So thus I lie here fearful of movem
Page 20 and 21: VIRGINIA BERNARDA ValedictionWhen N
Page 22 and 23: "Yeah, yeah," I call, returning the
Page 24 and 25: she flops for a bit, slurps her tea
Page 26 and 27: well her students did, she was neve
Page 28 and 29: English or Indian, that they had th
Page 30 and 31: ANDREW TAYLORSpringSpring is a dive
Page 32 and 33: CAROL SElTZERAiming for the MouthTr
Page 34 and 35: GRAEME WILSONA Selection of Japanes
Page 36 and 37: a highly ambivalent attitude to his
Page 38 and 39: Esson attended some rehearsals of T
Page 40 and 41: the literary life of Bloomsbury. Lo
Page 42 and 43: Without Yeats Esson would quite lik
Page 44 and 45: "What theatre do you have in Austra
Page 46 and 47: In the back room Esson could feel t
Page 48 and 49: "When we started our little theatre
Page 50 and 51: a screen against a wall. A theatre
Page 52 and 53: VINCENT O'SULLIVANSinging Mastery:
Page 54 and 55: flighty relation in most statements
Page 56 and 57: living and the dead; that places hi
Page 58 and 59: quite diverse traditions towards th
Page 60 and 61: WARRICK WYNNEThe Wetlands (for Liam
Page 62 and 63: JAN OWENSmileOur mother aimed the b
Page 64 and 65: RICHARD KELLY TIPPINGOlympic Airway
Page 66 and 67: DAVID REITERBear by the Jasper Road
Page 68 and 69: (At twenty eight you did not bother
Page 72 and 73: He had hair like mine used to be, t
Page 74 and 75: OLIVE PELLThe QuestionTell me how t
Page 76 and 77: BRIAN MOONANAT 515: MASS LECTURE Th
Page 78 and 79: PETER KIRKPATRICKTear HereThe bay i
Page 80 and 81: JOHN WINTERThe Bird ManIn wooded, p
Page 82 and 83: KNUTE SKINNERAugust 15There's a lig
Page 84 and 85: M.E. PATTI WALKERThe Hook"Aren't yo
Page 86 and 87: QMNQMNQMNQMNapartheid man, this is
Page 88 and 89: QMNQMNQMNeasy because you don't bel
Page 90 and 91: lands or which have been taken over
Page 92 and 93: GEOFF GOODFELLOWToo MuchDianne is 1
Page 94 and 95: SHANE McCAULEYSouth Fremantle, Summ
Page 96 and 97: JEAN KENTWaiting Out the DroughtWai
Page 98 and 99: STEPHEN MAGEEJesus Falls, South Aus
Page 100 and 101: SIMON BROWNBlue Hole, Santothe colo
Page 102 and 103: CONAL FITZPATRICKA Brown Dog, Off A
Page 104 and 105: PAUL HETHERINGTONOne RoomIn teeming
Page 106 and 107: society, or, in the terms of the my
Page 108 and 109: emphasised (I think) in the referen
Page 110 and 111: Summer Leaves". This continues the
Page 112 and 113: Deficiency Bill in Western Australi
Page 114 and 115: invocation of pastoral near the beg
Page 116 and 117: particularly dreaded). The final re
Page 118 and 119: VINCENT O'SULLIVAN - is one of New
show all

pdf download - Westerly Magazine

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?