Kate Middleton
Bricks, knowledge, gravity
‘I just read a history of bricks.’
We learn about the ways our teachers have influenced us over many years. As an undergraduate student at the University of Melbourne, I took every class taught by Professor Peter Steele SJ. More than a decade after I first ...
The answer could only be yes. Or,
(as James would have it) it was a question,
the way she turned back to him
seemed to say, that deserved
Imagine the moment of hesitation:
the catch in his voice,
knowing
he could not turn back: after years
up and down the river, a request
... (read more)Come – no grazed knee, no tears, no –
no fear of darkness in the singing wood.
Hear the threnody written on the wind:
a lament not for lostness, no, but for the slow
path homewards, the pebbles which guide us:
... (read more)Seven dresses. Of satin, for example, and
crêpe de Chine, tulle, shot-silk, that sort of thing.
Beading and ivory buttons. One with a rip in it.
(The tailor, in interview, remembers the incident –
a sleeve torn on the workfloor; as there were no needles
left to mend it this passes without comment.)
Made before birth for the seven balls
which would have been held in her honour
by the seven suitors, princes from provinces nearby.
Gored by the briars, providence was not on their side.
... (read more)So, little Ashenputtel & her groom
sit up in their palace,
growing fat
and ruling badly. Not exactly
role models for a new generation.
I mean, sure –
she had it rough
(her father made us realise early
how useful it would be to keep her
down)
– but that’s no reason
to push her weight around now.
She hasn’t, it seems, thought it out
very carefully.