top of page

Twenty Ways to Describe Suzanne Bergne’s ‘Dish’ (1989) by Isabella G. Mead



one) observe the central stem of a cut flower. now imagine water delivered to a small,

chalk-soft mouth: this is the basis of Dish.


two) to conjure Dish, say shallow three times. then think around the edges of a

freshwater fish.


three) bowl of soup glossed in oil, salted and boiled over a small fire.


four) green, beige, yellow-white, green-beige, green-brown, green-green.


five) scent of crema. or soil after long rain.


six) why should perception bypass the mouth? when I sip from its ledge, a gritty

sweetness lingers.


seven) significance or coincidence: the year of its making is the year of my birth.


eight) Dish is briny air & a newborn cry; the meeting of land & sea; a major city.


nine) I want to drink wholly from Dish. I want to perform its neat formality.


ten) on the screen it appears unset. behind gallery glass it disappears as a droplet

must into a larger body of water.


eleven) synonyms for Dish: mycelia; the decorative arts; tea leaves in large font.


twelve) potential and contradiction: ask yourself: if steamed leaves lose their lustre,

how do we account for the earth’s abiding greenness?


thirteen) despite a long-ago sear, the surface of Dish remains porous, unleavened as

wet clay.


fourteen) call this abundance. set your rivercraft upon a flood.


fifteen) if the mind’s eye is lush topsoil then Dish is gleaming roots.


sixteen) what more can I say? what words will reflect this satiny lather, this small

Dish glazed like a small earth?


seventeen) marsh-dweller.


eighteen) terrene device.


nineteen) vessel dense as a nutrient.





_______________

Isabella G. Mead is a poet from Melbourne, Australia. Her debut poetry collection, The

Infant Vine, will be published by UWAP in 2024. She is currently a PhD candidate in

Creative Writing at Monash University. She lives and raises her young family on unceded

Wurundjeri land.


This poem was chosen by Anthropocene Guest Editor HLR.

Commenti


bottom of page