In the first heat of summer 2014 I lost all my words. They fell away from me like scales Or rather were trapped in my head Unable to emerge from closed lips. Touch and gesture were left to me And so, being inadept in their use, I learned to accept discomfort Unable to...

A cardboard mock-up of the grassy knoll And route markers along a Dallas road Is an odd toy for a child, especially in 1970s Australia. Little wonder I graduated to 10 Days that Shook the World and Huis Clos at 14. Even less that Seymour Hirsh and Da Nang haunted my...

It’s past time, people. Rise up. How foetid does the stink of corruption have to be? Rise up. How much ice has to melt? How many fires burn? How many forests? How many teenagers must be shot? Rise up! How many journalists must be jailed for you? When will the...

Blank pages have always intimidated me And I hesitate to describe minutiae again Lumps and aches, dull anchor points into limb And earth and stretched muscle when I crave flight Gift me air. Gift me uplift. Gift me weightlessness. Kiss me into feathers.

It is a lynchpin of my life Outsider on the inside Yet I slide under radar Designed to trap my fellow Queers, genderfreaks, Colonised souls. I infiltrate privileged spaces with my passing. I come out over and over Discomfit the comfortable I may look white But my...