The Annual Air Show
Andrew James Menken (University of Newcastle, Australia)
A first-class Sunday morning
and my best mate Luke and I
are in one of those silly humours
where every second thing said
triggers a laughing fit
that soon tailspins
into an inaudible breathlessness.
This type of mood takes hold
around once a year and is fuelled
by whatever alcohol still remains
in our system from the previous
night and the grim prospect
of having to face another
fast-approaching working week.
We’re drinking instant coffee
and taking turns on my Xbox,
which rattles intermittently
but rarely crashes, until a noise
like a plummeting cartoon
bomb builds to a thunderous
volume outside and hangs above
the chaotic web of dreadlocks
on Luke’s head. A fear of nuclear
war no longer seems irrational
as we wait for the blindingly
bright flash of hot white light
that precedes vaporisation. When
the rumbling fades, I stagger
out the fly screen door and find
not a single atomic shadow.
Isn’t such a din often
just the residue from a low-
flying fighter jet breaking
the sound barrier? Luke scrolls
through his half-cracked iPhone
before a rush of words escapes
his lungs: it was only the air
show out at Warnervale…
That must’ve been an F-35A!
We joke about our misguided
terror and the disappointment
we’d both carry into the next life
if our final moments
were spent gaping
at a mate’s ugly mug.
My heart eventually starts
correcting its nosedive
as the turbulence
of a tumultuous
few minutes
dissipates.
After completing a Bachelor of Arts (Honours I) in English literature and German in 2018, Andrew Menken was awarded a Vice-Chancellor’s Scholarship and began a PhD at the University of Newcastle in 2020. Many of his poems are imaginative explorations of his little hometown of Budgewoi on the Central Coast. Other than SWAMP, Andrew’s poems have previously been published in The Suburban Review and Quadrant. Andrew recently received a Bouddi Foundation for the Arts Grant and was awarded the 2021 Allen and Unwin Award for creative writing. Andrew likes to sing, play guitar, and write songs in his free time.
