Late Murrumbidgee Poems

by John Mukky Burke

Burke is a poet who has shed many masks and is the better for it. He revels here in the godawful, funny, earthy business of being alive on Country. There is always death, of course, and worse, for ‘we people who have walked at midnight have seen a great delight of pain’. Proudly Wiradjuri after battling his white skin for years, openly gay after decades of closeted torment – Burke’s pen crackles with energy.

Genres: Poetry

84 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2020

About the author

John Mukky Burke lives in Wagga Wagga and was born in Narrandera in 1946. His mother was the daughter of a resident of Warangesda Mission at Darlington Point, New South Wales, and his father was of Irish heritage. Because of his fair skin, identification as Wiradjuri has been a longtime battle. Because of his position on the sexual spectrum, he likewise has taken ages to be comfortable with what is basically not a clearly binary situation. Both ethnicity and sexuality are arguably among the most fraught dimensions humans have to deal with. Mukky’s latest collection is Late Murrumbidgee Poems (Cordite, 2020).