-
NATHAN CURNOW
Ghost
Tour Guide
at Old Adelaide Gaol
-
- The tour begins, just two of us
as the pink woolwash sky
- drains away. The scream of the
flight-path, bleak shadows
- burst over the razor-wire snap
of walls.
-
- He says he has a way with
ghosts, a way of pissing them off.
- He begins the night defining his
terms, warning the poet
- of language—the word ghost is like God
-
- you'll be asked to prove it,
everything loaded with
- interpretation. See, I believe
in ghosts but I don't say that.
- There are two different types of
hauntings.
-
- The first is residual,
a past event, stuck on repetitive loop.
- Call it imprint or playback. I
call it, residual, a buzz word
- at the moment. Intelligent,
is when a Spirit responds
-
- directly to your presence. Which
seems to happen to me.
- I take too many photos, I have a
way of pissing them off.
- (Residual, a past event, stuck
on repetitive loop.)
-
- Most sightings in here occur
after twelve, you're all mine until
- then. You know I've begun
writing a book as well.
- (My sentence being written.)
-
Nathan Curnow's first book of poetry is titled No
Other Life But This [Five Islands Press]. With assistance from the Australia Council
he is writing a second collection of poems based on his experiences staying at ten haunted
sites around the country.
|