Catherine Bateson

“Mum's mobile was the most immoblie cell phone in the world. It often lived on the top of the bookshelf closest to the front door. It was there so she'd see it before she left the house. The trouble was, Mum was alwayd leaving the house in a mad rush and the mobile stayed put.”
― Catherine Bateson, Boyfriend Rules of Good Behavior

“You feel so overwritten you're like a palimpsest;
the original girl almost lost under years of scrawling
yet you nurture an illusion of beauty,
brush your hair in the dark
so when your reflection finally catches up with you
you stare straight past that older woman
to the skateboard dancers behind
hitting the frosty air
with exuberant grace.
On the loose in the morning city reminds you of lovers,
catching the tram to work in last night's laddered stockings,
the sharp-edged day already intruding like a hangover.
It's not the sex you miss or the hotel mornings
but the reassurance of strangers and that wild card.
Now everything's played out the same,
no surprises in the pack except those dealt by disaster.
Early this morning such certainty dragged on your thoughts
they stumbled flat-footed through the breakfast silence
and you knew neither the apples
orchard fresh, crisp as snow
nor the blue bowl they posed in were enough.
People disappear all the time,
emerge like summer snakes newly marked and glittering
into a clean desert.
Without the photo of a child you carry in your wallet
which reminds you who you have become
you'd catch a train to Musk or Mollymook,
some place your fingers have strayed over.
Even thinking that, you turn your face into the wind,
keep walking that same old line in your new flamboyant shoes.

Oh my treacherous heart.”
― Catherine Bateson, The Vigilant Heart