States of Poetry - Poems

States of Poetry 2016 - New South Wales | 'small town apocalypse' by Susie Anderson

States of Poetry New South Wales - Series One

States of Poetry - Poems

States of Poetry 2016 - New South Wales | 'small town apocalypse' by Susie Anderson

States of Poetry New South Wales - Series One

she used to walk out to the road at the end of town, put her arms and legs up to the sky and stretch out to reach all of the stars. the next summer it seemed like she would never have the chance to do it again, because of the locusts. everywhere in the town there were dead locusts covering the roads. locusts met their deaths on windscreens of cars and meshed inextricably into the grates of the trucks on the highway. the people in town stayed indoors most of the time because you could not go outside without breathing in or stepping on a locust. elderly people raised their eyebrows at the young as if they were receiving their penance. the middle-aged accepted the locusts as another weary feature of their lives. the young checked the weather on their phones and knew there was a 80% chance a rain storm would come and wash the locust carcasses away by next thursday.

Susie Anderson

Recording

Susie Anderson

Susie Anderson is a writer and multimedia artist based in Sydney, Australia. A descendent of the Wergaia and Wemba Wemba people from north western Victoria, her practice is concerned with the distances between place and people, themes she explores through prose poetry and media based works. Susie has performed and presented widely at literary festivals and events in Australia and abroad, and in 2015 co-ran an event of collaborative poetry performances at the National Young Writers Festival in Newcastle. Selected publications include Alien She, Keep Brave, Shabby Doll House, The Lifted Brow, For Every Year and Voiceworks Magazine. Susie was a recipient of a Wheeler Centre Hot Desk Fellowship in 2014.

Susie also makes work as part of the arts collective sociocreative trust, most recently Elsewhere, an exhibition at Redrock Books & Gallery in 2015 and Speak Easy, a curated dinner and performance at the 2016 Festival of Live Art in Melbourne.