In their crucibles they attempt a new kind of tea
every day, usually through a combination of
Methods, such as the fox method, the hydrangea
method and the sunlight method this is a colour-
Determined method in effect, though efforts are
Made to avoid repeating any method on consecutive
days another of their efforts has gone into producing
A quietness spray to be used at peak noise times
Of the day they are an outwardly calm but spiritually
Restless bunch they have studied the letters of
the great bushrangers and are as often to be found
Reading under a tree as concocting and examining
In a lab they have their own journals and calendar
several of the apprentice chemists have been pawing
At the dates in search of a suitable one to celebrate
The career of Mandy, the most senior scientist in
the area, and who deserved pretty much all the credit
For the quietness spray and pheasant flash (the latter
is worn behind the ear and involves a kind of fishing
Fly which swings out in the peripheral vision, encouraging
speed it belonged to her earlier days as a physicist
Mandy was thirteen she studied her face in a mirror
As if looking back in time to her ancestors who could
Never have conceived of such a thing as science and
would never have thought the invention of a quietness
spray necessary even if they had but the bush is
Not the same, she thought she took her mother’s
Copy of Pride and Prejudice from the shelf, hoping
that the reading of quality literature would continue
To keep her species from using weapons she idly
sipped at a lukewarm cup of tea, nodding and
acknowledging the reasonable sound of the bellbirds
And gathered the equipment necessary for collection
Of plant extracts there were always new illnesses
to deal with, and a kind of malaise of the nerves
She could only call neurosis she believed that for
Better or for worse that the coming century would
focus much more on the study of the mind than it
Ever had before, the mind as a kind of bank that
Was always putting in and taking out dirty bits
Of money not at all like the kind of dirty bank she
Spent her days rooting in, looking for a flower often
she intuited that she was about to find something
Miraculous a new daisy, fungi, herb or cacti
Only to realise she was making tea a new way

The title of Jeremy Fisher’s latest tome is deceptive. This reviewer expected a zany children’s book. Actually, How to Tell Your Father to Drop Dead is a subdued look at masculinity in Australian history. The text comprises autobiographical fragments and short stories. Fisher recalls growing up in a culture where homosexuality was ‘invisible’. He describes the heady days of the Gay Liberation movement in the 1970s. The author remembers his relationship with his father. The older man is described as an Errol Flynn lookalike who, at the age of sixteen, killed a boar and whose body was (decades later) cremated alongside that animal’s tusks. There is a piece on gay male sadomasochism in Sydney’s western suburbs.

As flown from orange sunset, over mountain-
shaded sea, at eventide. As boats
are drawn in, sails begin to undress, or arrive anxious,
fully bare-masted. Fishermen navigate reeds
that signal harbour,
and the homecoming emotions enlarge.
Water holds blueness not much longer. Death
will costume it in its colour, and the honking of geese
will give voice to the grieving.

 after the woodblock print Descending Geese at Katada
by Utagawa Hiroshige, 1797–1858, Japan--

With resource shortages looming and climate change a topic of intense discussion, it is becoming increasingly important for people to find ways to reduce their day-to-day consumption and carbon footprint. Greg Foyster’s Changing Gears seeks to explore the question of how to do so through the author’s own interesting, and no doubt exhausting, cross-country journey toward a greener way of living. Setting out to cycle from Melbourne to Cairns via Tasmania, which makes more sense in context, Foyster and his partner used the journey to force themselves into the sparse life of bicycle travellers, while visiting and interviewing a number of prominent experts and practitioners of conservation, green living, and social dynamics.