This week has been interesting, I’ve hit my stride and missed it at the same time. I spent Friday exploring the CBD, and ended by seeing Anisa Nandaula and Joelle Taylor perform at Couplet in the Brisbane Square Library (all of whom I can highly recommend). I’ve finished off two new zine suites, stitched half a new embroidery collection and been highly inspired, even with the off-kilter beginning to the week.

Find following: two poems written response to the spoken word performances at Couplet – For Anisa and For Joelle; a poetic fragment; and a photograph from the Escher x Nendo exhibition at NGV – Shadows Under Black Arches.

Interesting reading,

Alexei

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For Anisa

You chewed on your lip
In the endless heartbeats
In the silence before your voice
Broke through

The way it shifted
The way it cracked no matter you formed your vowels.
Your hands, bang, the tears we cried in turns.
resolving into stark clarity, your narrative
Your search pulled an echoing reverb from my hollow chest.

For Joelle

If you’re feeling the trigger, you’re probably holding the gun, you said
It makes you powerful, you said,
And I thought of my bullets, of magazines filled, of chambers loaded.

Your gun isn’t in my arsenal, not that one,
But my armoury is well stocked,
and your stories chime the same as the bullet casings that fall when they’re fired.

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Freeforming, working on the inside of each second, surrendering to the gentle tug, of time or gravity or momentum.

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