I’ve breathed the air chirped by sparrows,
critically appraised everything
I didn’t understand,
searched for magica potenta
in urban mysteries, shaded quantum clouds,
on bedroom ceilings, and found echidna quills,
kookaburra beaks, sobriety, all the words
I didn’t want to write.
Three knocks at the door-to-door,
I said I don’t want any, thank you,
not knowing what I didn’t desire.
Found this in my letterbox addressed ‘To the Occupant’:
A short story in the Next anthology from CSFG Publishing, available in paperback and electronic formats. The Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild are very active and hit way above their weight in the sf scene, although their goal of world domination is possibly a little optimistic.
The story is very loosely based on the myth of Bacchus and Ariadne.