• Owen Bullock
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Editor’s note: In October, the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Design (FAD) at the University of Canberra (the home of Axon: Creative Explorations), invited members of the faculty to respond, in 100 words, to the year that has been, and especially the COVID experience. This invitation was taken up by creative writing lecturer/poet Owen Bullock, and we are pleased to include his 100 words as a synecdoche for the FAD experience as a whole community.

 

 

the length

of two dog leads

walkers chat

 

COVID winter morn

clouds and sunlight

and plum blossom

 

lonely

on the trail

a red parrot chimes

 

ceramic studio

tap slap of wood paddle

on clay

 

our empty room just ask the sound

 

lockdown

a girl in a tutu

playing golf in the park

 

out walking

giving the magpie

1.5 metres

 

coronavirus

I can have the park bench

all to myself

 

what I’m not

the cocky keening

through the suburbs

 

that time of night

she waters the houseplants

with her hot water bottle

 

after spring rains

the hillside smudged with

Paterson’s curse