It was watching the empty buses leave in the dark outside the restaurant that did it. I was eating with my lover and my daughter on a June evening in Altona when I found myself being distracted by the rooms of light, quite empty, that floated behind my daughter's back. Every ten or fifteen minutes there would be another one heading off into the night, passengerless, to complete a huge orbit of Mel ... (read more)
Debi Hamilton
Debi Hamilton is a Melbourne writer, poet and psychologist. She has won several awards and commendations for her writing, and a number of her short stories, non-fiction pieces and poems have been published in various journals, and anthologies, including Australian Love Poems 2013 and Australian Love Stories. Her first collection of poetry, Being Alone, was published in 2013. In 2014 Debi was runner-up in the University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor's International Poetry Prize, and went on to be awarded equal first place in the Newcastle Poetry Prize. She lives in Melbourne.
Digging in the garden I found a mothalbinoed on a piece of bark by the fence.Those were my radiation days; it was goodto lay down the spade and kneel in the soil.
... (read more)
Last week I received an envelope in the mail, the address written in my father’s hand. My heart accelerated a little and it struck me as unseemly, at my age and in my circumstances, to be still so easily rattled by a parent.
The envelope was light – inside I found only a newspaper clipping and a small note. I spread them out on the kitchen bench. A friend was staying with me – a recent acqu ... (read more)