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John Arthur Nichol

  • Trapped in a stroller on the bus, a child throws back her head and strains against the harness, threatening to eject her new blue dummy. She wears a pink top, multi-coloured leggings, and brown pigtails touching her jaw.

    She twists to the side. The dummy’s about to blow when a phone appears in her hands and she looks down at the screen. Her body relaxes. One hand rises to clasp a pigtail between thumb and forefinger and remains there, twisting a strand, pulling gently.

    The dummy stirs in thoughtful sucks.

  • Reflection

    “Looking

  • Putin’s trains run on secretive tracks,
    Lest his populace venture attacks.
    Russia’s fearful and grim,
    But it terrifies him,
    And the tyrant can never relax.

  • Echo

    A slender young Asian woman stands against a wall of huge, solid granite blocks with deep channels between them. She wears a short black skirt trimmed in white with a wide white sash at the waist, and a black top leaving her midroff bare. Her weight is on one leg so that the skirt hangs higher on one side. Her shoes are white lace-ups and her hair is back. She holds a phone near her face in one hand, and a big white envelope rests in the crook of that elbow, all but concealing her torso. One corner of the envelope touches the white waist sash. Her head is bent towards the phone and her free hand is lifted, one finger touching her eyebrow. A long, skinny white shoulder strap suspends a tiny white bag at an angle on her skirt. Above the girl is a huge window framed in wide granite verticals, smaller side windows, and a solid metal panel beneath with geometric designs. The window contains a huge fashion poster depicting four people in the background and a woman in front whose pose is similar to that of the young woman below, but reversed, with the weight on her opposite leg. The woman in the poster wears heels and a matching brown, knee-length dress, and her hand holds a brown purse against her thigh. Her free arm is lifted, crossing her chest and reaching behind the opposite shoulder. She stands as tall as the real woman below. Carved into the stone between them are the words ‘Barrack Street’.

  • A man rides an electric scooter through Triangle Park in Dee Why. He wears a t-shirt and thongs and light, baggy boxers patterned with spots. They flap in the wind. His daughter, standing in front with hands between his on the handlebar, is a black-haired, skinny nine-year old in blue tracksuit pants and a red top. Her fringe is straight and her eyes are deep, and dark, and everywhere.

  • A tall, brown-haired schoolgirl walks the pedestrian way in easy strides. Her top is white and her backpack is blue, like her long, skinny trousers. She shakes her head and lifts one arm in a gesture, moving her lips in silent rehearsal or review. Now and then, a syllable goes live.

  • Two very old ladies are on a mission, powering along Dee Why Parade with walking sticks, urgent looks and identical rolling gaits. Their height and hair colour match but not their outfits. One wears a kind of mesh with black lace over dark slacks, but the other is almost casual by comparison. They exchange terse comments.

  • A middle-aged man in York Street: grey trousers, light blue t-shirt, short hair pinched on top and held with a rubber band. He lights a cigarette. His coffee rests on a garbage bin and he lurks there, watching the street.

  • A father is trying to shop in Aldi while his smiling daughter clings to the trolley and walks her shoes up the chiller shelves. The girl has dark hair, red-framed glasses, red corduroy jeans and a pink jumper. As they turn a corner she still hangs on but the red corduroys are at full stretch, one leg behind and balanced on a toe, the other foot wedged on the trolley.

    The father remains grimly focused.

  • A Ghost Gum (I think).

    A tall tree on a grass slope in the shade. The tree is an Australian Eucalypt, a ghost gum, with smooth, pale grey bark, a forked trunk and long, thick branches spreading and forking over a wide area. The branches narrow gradually into clusters of twigs covered with leaves. The background is blue sky and green shrubs.

  • If Putin were vegetable, gee,
    What manner of plant would he be?
    As a poisonous seed
    He could grow to a weed,
    But he’d never amount to a tree.

  • Established

    The base and the spreading,curling roots of a Moreton Bay fig tree fill the foreground and the bottom three quarters of the photo. The tree is light grey and dotted with patches of pale green fungus. Lines of green moss spread along the ridges and valleys of the nearest roots, which reach down from the trunk with dark fissures between them and widen into broad, organic structures, which themselves are home to smaller roots. On the left, several thick roots have curled together into an amphitheatre shape whose wall is solid but crossed with shadows where the roots have joined. It’s a very old tree. Beyond it, in the top left corner, a grass slope climbs towards a dark-stained sandstone wall and a building with a huge, stone-arched window, sandstone edging and white-mortared red bricks. The roots of other fig trees trail across the grass.

  • A youngish woman prowls along the bus like an angry bird. She has short, curly blonde hair and eyes locked in a frown.

  • Strange white installations rise from a cruise ship’s deck at Circular Quay. They look like giant cotton buds. Proof of Covid testing.

  • Millard Street, Drummoyne is drenched in sunshine, and scuttling with newly-minted skinks.

  • On York Street a wild-haired, angry man adjusts his red mobility scooter, sits back and shouts an obscenity. He lunges forward again, cigarette dangling from a corner of his mouth, and makes another adjustment.

  • Dark clouds above the harbour, and a crane with beacon flashing in the gloom. School uniforms crowded on a rooftop.

  • In Neutral Bay a man slips on a metal grate and his hands fly up in the air.

  • Manly Vale Golf Course: five clean white ibis graze on the rain-washed green.

  • Sunny Gelato Swirl

    A steel-coloured metal bench stands on six steel legs, on a sunlit, tiled footpath in the foreground. The bench curves at the ends, in opposite directions, so that its shadow on the footpath forms a swirling, elongated letter 'S', in shadow lines due to the many narrow, horizontal plates that form the back and base of the bench. A palm tree stands behind the bench. In the background, in deep shadow, is a shopfront with a sign saying 'Anita Gelato', and two people at a table outside.

  • Putin’s version of history is twisted
    With falsehoods, pathetically listed;
    By his logic, what’s more,
    Russia’s losing its war
    To a nation that never existed.

  • The Happiest Wall-Light

    A shiny silver light fitting set into a stained sandstone block. The fitting is circular, with the top part curving outwards, and the bottom section cut out so that it resembles a mouth stretched wide in a big, happy grin.

  • A portly man in his thirties squeezes awkwardly between the railings, clings to the top one and hangs, suspended above the path. He opens his hands and drops three inches, landing perfectly with knees bent. Straightening, he turns in triumph to his less daring partner on the ramp.

  • A small girl stands with drooping arms, like a toy put down and forgotten. She has straight, shoulder-length brown hair, a dusty pink dress, pink sandals and white socks. She watches her dad choose a trolley, and when he speaks she scuttles forward with a grin.

  • A little dog trots wilfully round its human, obliging her to rotate before continuing.