75,000

transported for life

first fleet crammed belowdecks

three-pennorth of sugar a stolen bonnet

women’s factory the hard weight of a leg-iron

thumbprints in a brick the night-breathing of walls

morning prayer out of solitary arrowed shirts scuffing beeswax

pregnant on remand a vagrant boy in an unconsecrated church

sharks patrol Point Puer two last lost children hold hands jump

friendly warder a woman off latrine duty owes him big-time

iron maiden evening piano recital for the governor’s lady

felling Huon pine logs cat-o’-nine tails superintends

convict songs chain gangs gone bush in the Tiers

stone clatter on tin throw out yer tea sugar missus

starving dog his dinner companions dead reckoning

today’s hunt loosing the hound pack break-back broken

island-bound by an isthmus hanged by the neck until dead

isle death row after row of convict cairns all fallen crooked

remittance man a ration of grog for the manumitted couple

blanks in the family album we never talk about it dear

they declare the stain may prove indelible milord

proximal phalanges o the shame of it

sharp needles of

l.o.v.e.