the open throat of ocean compliant
spilling impossible reveries
criteria for protection:
fathomable bacteria
a stomach dissected
compliant to sensors
& calculators remembering
language
criteria of protection:
international standard of oil
-spill
question:
how to lie underneath
the lines on a map of water
without feeling
the breaking?
machines rake the seabed
for living ancients
they smother breathing reefs
with sand to build
artificial islands
satellite images show:
basketball courts afloat,
weaponised structures to shoot
down enemy missiles
scientists theorise
the damage beneath
the manmade islands,
call what the government does
a grey area persistent
in the industry of unmaking
the oldest of beings
question:
who does this ocean belong to?
anyone who can militarise it first
how we love to claim
that which lasts longer
than the water of our bodies
question:
what is the age of water?
its life expectancy?
at what age is it separated
from birthplace?
the age of water is static
the first to be created
when all was swaddled in dark
the first to uncreate us
question:
how much money is this ocean worth?
lives?
those who live by the water
die by the machine
Eunice Andrada is a Filipina poet and teaching artist. Her debut poetry collection Flood Damages (Giramondo Books) won the Anne Elder Award (2018) and was shortlisted in the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards (2019). Her work has been translated and performed in Tagalog, Hiligaynon, French, Japanese, Italian, Spanish and Czech, while her poems have appeared in local and international journals and anthologies. Her previous works have also won the John Marsden and Hachette Australia Prize (2014) and been shortlisted for the Fair Australia Prize (2018).
Featured in The Guardian, ABC News and other media, she has performed her poetry in diverse international stages, from the Sydney Opera House to the UN Climate Negotiations in Paris. Her ecopoetry has been recognised through the NAHR-Australian Poetry Fellowship on the theme of water and the feature of her poetry in a climate change-themed exhibition at the Amundsen-Scott Station in the South Pole of Antarctica. In addition to teaching as an independent arts educator, she has been commissioned to teach poetry workshops for the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences.
Runway Journal acknowledges the custodians of the nations our digital platform reaches. We extend this acknowledgement to all First Nations artists, writers and audiences.
Runway Journal is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
Runway Journal receives project support from the NSW Government through Create NSW.
Runway Journal acknowledges the custodians of the nations our digital platform reaches. We extend this acknowledgement to all First Nations artists, writers and audiences.
Runway Journal is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
Runway Journal receives project support from the NSW Government through Create NSW.