Continued Passage

"One of the things that disturbed me the most in the house raids was having to run into bedrooms and round up sleeping Iraqi children. I couldn't help imagining how my own children would react if armed soldiers from another country burst into their rooms and tore them from bed... I would tap them gently on the shoulder and the poor kids would leap from bed, petrified, screaming like the world was ending. And outside they would go, as their brothers and fathers were being zipcuffed and shoved onto the backs of trucks and sent out to who knows where."

Joshua Key, The Deserter's Tale.


The distant drum beat has begun; taking him he knew not where; on these dizzying journeys. Threshed into the mundane are myriad other tales. Couldn't be condemned. Obsessions strung out into chains of failure or success. Pools of discord, stray wires, odd pieces of metal sticking at angles into the gloom. We didn't really mean to hurt you. It couldn't be stolen from us, it wasn't ours to give. We were given free passage on a great ocean liner; and were here simply to observe the saga, wind whipped gulls and cries snatched in the wind.

It was cold and salty and we were at death's door. I had always looked into the comfortable back yards of other people; and wished to be them, to live their lives. To be ordinary. Caught there; in the deep reality of things, the morning light on the party still going at dawn. I wanted to be them, the latest crop; to party like they partied, to be loved like they were loved. The dog next door continues to bark pointlessly throughout the day. A pack animal alone; a bit like us.


THE BIGGER STORY:


The Canberra Times:

Prime Minister John Howard and Treasurer Peter Costello have denied persistent rumours of a last-minute change in the leadership, even if this week's polls show the Government in even more electoral trouble. Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey predicted the results would be "the same or if not worse for the Government, given what happened last week", but rejected talk of Mr Howard standing down tomorrow.
"It's complete rubbish, absolute rubbish," he said on Meet the Press.