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Best Australian Yarn: Meckering by Julie Raffaele

Julie RaffaeleBest Australian Yarn
Meckering
Camera IconMeckering Credit: The West Australian

The dirt road twists around stands of gum trees, morning light slivering across the mottled bark. A flock of galahs explodes skyward. She inhales at the metallic shrieking. One bird remains on the road edge; soft, rosy feathers matted by violence, head at a melancholic angle. The birds descend to forage again, in staccato twists and rolls, through the sunlit dust of the passing ute.

She remembers coming to this place from far away. ‘You’re resourceful’, her mother pats her hand on the Holden’s window edge, ’soon you’ll be making puree of prickly pear and weaving grasses into cocktail gowns,’ and promises to visit.

She waves gaily behind, then studies her new husband shyly, with a reticence borne of quiet desire. The freshly shaven curve of his neck, the dependable plateau of his chest beneath his cotton shirt. His dark eyes, corners crinkling. Blushing, she bathes in his richly-timbred chuckling.

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