Featured in

  • Published 20250204
  • ISBN: 978-1-923213-04-3
  • Extent: 196 pp
  • Paperback, ebook. PDF

I

When I turn into a dishwasher, I can’t see, but I have a distinct sense of being. I am in the world. I am a machine. I feel the outline of me, the space I take up. My metal skin is definite, I am drawn with sharp lines; there can be no confusion about where my body ends and the world begins. I feel the empty cavern of my dish racks, the function of my body and I itch to spray from my rotating arms. A beautiful shining box. A beautiful shining box with purpose. I hum with potential. Switch. Me. On.

Already a subscriber? Sign in here

If you are an educator or student wishing to access content for study purposes please contact us at griffithreview@griffith.edu.au

Share article

About the author

Lily Holloway

Lily Holloway’s work has been published in Black Warrior Review, Sundog Lit, Ōrongohau: Best New Zealand Poems, Peach Mag and Hobart After Dark, among others. Their...

More from this edition

Blackheath mating rituals

Poetry Clouds ripple, sunshine splashes,    a white dove tests its wings. Bella and Houdini are hanging clothes  on the line of the landlord when flirtation greets them: the...

Painting behind bars

In ConversationEvery time I grab a toothbrush, it makes me smile that [this all began] at Manus. I mean, this technique comes from suffering. This is not from university. I am forbidden from studying or getting a qualification here, but sometimes we can learn from suffering. I am managing to heal my trauma [with] painting. Whenever I feel sad, I paint. Whenever I feel happy, I paint. It’s like a treasure, how can I explain it? It’s invention, it’s something that hasn’t happened before. Everyone uses a toothbrush, but when I paint with a toothbrush I feel it helps me understand that my work, the marks I make, are very unique. It brings the story back. I don’t want people to forget about the story because I don’t want to escape from who I was, who I am. I would like to share the truth that this happened to me.

The pool

Fiction I CATCH THE school bus home most days, kids kangarooing from seat to seat. Hard for a little bloke like me to get a...

Stay up to date with the latest, news, articles and special offers from Griffith Review.