Rebecca Jessen is a Brisbane based poet whose first poetry collection Ask Me About the Future (UQP, 2020) was shortlisted for the 2021 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Poetry, the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry and Commended for the Anne Elder Award.
"deflated at dusk" evokes the sometimes excruciating slowness of a family summer vacation in Australia—bbqs and tomato sauce (ketchup), sand in the bed, Aeroguard for the mosquitos, Mum narrating the weather "with every vagrant cloud"—which seems to absorb all life and sense of identity and singularity into it’s soporific spell.
deflated at dusk
xmas lights trapeze across campsites. all-day
bbq smell makes me reconsider my vego status.
no-one tells you swimming is more fun
in the wading pool. has Mum ever existed
without a cigarette in her hand. smoke
and Reef Oil wafting from the porch. two essentials:
Aeroguard and Masterfoods tomato sauce.
so what if I still check the news hourly.
life moves fast elsewhere. here
the easy affection of toddlers
is life-affirming. sometimes a bucket really is
just a bucket. we are all deflated
at dusk. Mum narrates the weather
with every vagrant cloud. I don’t even mind
the sand in my bed or the mirror
of my alternative life. I’ve never been less