Off the Page

26 September 2013

Last night at Browns Mart in the Darwin CBD ‘Off the Page’ resumed under the guiding eye of Panos Couros  director of the Northern Territory Writers Centre and ably assisted by NTWC manager, Kaye Hall.

http://ntwriters.com.au/new-nt-writers-centre-website/

An appreciative crowd was treated to some of the Darwin’s literary and poetic talent. The guest line-up included :

Levin Diatschenko http://www.blackriderpress.com/Diatschenko.html

Bilha Smith http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2013/08/13/3824452.htm

Digonata Bordoloi http://www.amazon.com/Slow-ebook/dp/B00DZEQX40

Ben Quinn extraordinary young musician,songwriter who is on the way to achieving  his dream of making a living from music.

Kamarra Bell-Wykes http://www.ubudwritersfestival.com/writers/kamarra-bell-wykes/

Coral Carter: Read from her book 'Descended from Thieves'

  http://www.mullamullapress.com/descended-from-thieves-coral-carter

Blood Love

I met my cousin

on Wilson Street

at 16 he dived

into a rock

did time in a chair

now walks with a stick

feet twisted out

like Charlie Chaplin

but no one is laughing

we met last

at uncles wake

the ghost of our grandmother

cursed as she poured the whisky

down the drain

the girl cousins

sang sad movies in their underwear

our cousin broke down said we didn’t love him

we said

blood love

is deep and red

it stains

that was before our other cousin wrestled him to the ground

in front of 36 Varden Street

to take his keys

not that he had a drivers licence any way

we rang a taxi and sent him home

he doesn’t drink too much now

he has given the women away

they drove him to it

happier alone

his daughter up north

his sister round three with cancer

we remembered his father

who won the lottery

drank 12 longnecks a night

until his brain dissolved

I met my cousin on Wilson Street

he wears the Aboriginal colours on his wrist

a twenty year old hat

black jeans skinny legs

not the kind of bloke

some would want to meet

but

blood love

is deep and red

it stains.

'Descended From Thieves '

Coral Carter

Mulla Mulla Press

Open mike readers 

feeling at home

23 September 2013

Into the last week of my residency and I am feeling at home. I feel as if the fruit bats are my nocturnal friends, I can hear that the bush chooks are just warning off their mates not someone crying for help, I know the splashing in the toilet bowl is the green frog, he is shy and scared and the spider the size of a side plate is just hunting insects and not me. That whatever was running around the skirting board was probably a mouse. The snake which glided like a stream of molten gold across my path is still outside I hope.

I sleep through the reticulations ons and offs. I am enjoying the sound of the rainbow lorikeets as they leave for work in the morning and return at dusk. Keep an ear out for the magpie geese, an out of tune horn section, as they leave the oval and head somewhere else for the night. I like to see the first kites in the sky at dawn and the last at sunset. I love sitting on my little back porch which is high above the gardens and eat my breakfast before anyone is around and the animal night shift is going to bed. I spy silently on the tourists with maps in hand navigating their way to the bromeliad collection.

 I listen impatiently to the doves that have a lot to say but only one word to say it with. I wait for the hose to be turned on by the bloke who wears a red hat, drives a white ute and waters his patch of community garden each day at wilt o’clock when everything wilts. At this time I find the sound of running water cooling as I have wilted a little too. I recognise the regulars to the gardens  and their dogs. I miss the voices of children if they don’t come with their dads and mums to pick their produce. I like the photographers with back packs of gear photographing everything, a bit like me. I know the click of the gate latch to the Chook Hilton and I know which hen announces she has laid an egg. I am OK that the security guard comes in the night and rattles the door making sure my house is safe. But I worry that he may hear me snoring.