This poem is a response to Tracey Moffatt’s photographic series entitled Something More (1989) in the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. It is 87 words in length. I was interested in the narrative of Tracey’s journey as an artist from her beginnings in Australia and the way she has used colour and constructed outback imagery to convey a sense of drama in this journey.
Sophisticate in a red cheongsam
Incongruous outback scene
Languid blonde leans on a rough shack wall
Ignored by the bloke within
Boys blurred in play, an Oriental face
Empathy and a touch embrace
Red fades to grey of stifled dreams
On the perilous road to identity
With stockings torn and limbs askew
She’s dying here to be able to seek
A place in the megalopolis
Images embedded in her brain
Long after she’s left to find a lens
And capture where she’s been