Medea – towards the end

Featured in

  • Published 20230502
  • ISBN: 978-1-922212-83-2
  • Extent: 264pp
  • Paperback (234 x 153mm), eBook

Accord for swallowing is first,
then comes a halting before
things turn dark. Sleeping is
necessary, watered down by
vibrant colours and a long
exhale. The ointment smoothed
on her skin protects her from
the nurse with the fiery breath.
She wanted to confuse the staff
and brings in a pebble from the
garden as suggested, placing it
into the pocket of the man in
the next room. It’s the best way to
get sugar in her coffee and salt
on her bread so that soon she is
practising placing stones in the
corridor, laying them carefully
together until paths of gravel
lace in and out of the building,
circling like a spiral. 

Already a subscriber? Sign in here

If you are an educator or student wishing to access content for study purposes please contact us at griffithreview@griffith.edu.au

Share article

About the author

SJ Finn

SJ Finn is a fiction writer and poet from Melbourne. Her poetry has been included on short and longlists, including the Peter Porter Poetry...

More from this edition

Sad stories you are old enough to hear 

Non-fictionThis year, a ‘news anchor’ raised a question about why Muslims participate in the garba when they don’t believe in idol worship. It’s a bit like saying people should not be allowed to put up a Christmas tree if they haven’t been baptised or taken the sacrament. Thousands of non-­Catholics attend the feast of Mount Mary in Bandra. People of all faiths attend the Urs of the Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer and the Sufi saint Waris Ali Shah at Dewa Sharif. Hindu devotees going to the Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala also visit the Vavar mosque en route. That news anchor’s question poisons the breath of our country.

Once upon a self

Non-fictionFor Plato, most notably, drama and poetry were to be regarded with intense moral and political suspicion: they made malevolent characters intelligible to their audiences; they use up our real moral sentiments by arousing them for fictional characters; and by depicting certain traits and tropes they risked seducing audiences into acting them out themselves.

Antecedent

PoetryBetween one end of the gap and the other the gravity of our gaze can but scratch like banksias  at your fingertips before starlight splits the present  across his teeth into pearl and lime stanzas.

Stay up to date with the latest, news, articles and special offers from Griffith Review.