Strive
Jazz Giuliani (Macquarie University, Australia)
An intensely focused, bespectacled Face
looms above the lectern.
The lectern cowers
like a teenage girl under the clammy grip,
wet bulbous lips of the Face
low, grazing the microphone.
The quiet voice is replaced with a resounding POP (!) which preludes a
Titanic sigh.
And the subsequent white noise of the assaulted Mic.
Topped
by a preened haircut that mimics
a refined and modern Beach Boy,
book-ended by a square, American-like, jaw,
The Face is now joined
by many other faces.
Projected in staggering technicolour on multiple screens around
the room. Only scrapes
of impatient chairs
and giggles masked as coughs, can be heard over the calculated,
meditative breathing of the Face,
which waits
for more silence
still.
Silence.
A quiet groan gathering momentum around the room
like a Mexican-wave of apathy.
The Face ceases and looks into a mass of soft, blinking eyes before continuing.
“Do not be discouraged by short-term pain people.
Remember, this is a WAR. We
must strive to win.”
Applause.
Jazz Giuliani is a poet and writer, interested in sensitive exploration of the deeply personal and political through the shared intimacy of storytelling. Jazz performs regularly in Melbourne and has been published in The Feminist Utopia Project (The Feminist Press), Page 17, Little Raven, The Australian Poetry Collaboration, Fead Magazine, amongst others. Jazz recently curated and performed at a debut multidisciplinary and poetry event titled Muse & Makers.
