This Is a Story About Your Mother

By Louise Wallace

In her latest collection, Louise Wallace raises an existential eyebrow at pregnancy-birth-motherhood. Is this universal rite-of-passage really an intimately personal event, down to the degree of fluid rising in your ankles, or is it a societal machine, forever churning out the next generation to an unrelenting voiceover of parenting advice? Wrestling auto-generated Huggies text and her own sometimes heart-breaking experiences into meaning, Wallace weighs the evidence. With equal parts curiosity and pique, she writes her way through to the human.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Victoria University Press
• Release date: Jul 6, 2023
• ISBN: 9781776921577

Book preview

yesterday

my dad was angryboilingin his body how a kid getswhen they’re dog-tired but tonightI saw my dad reallylaugh otherwise he’s absentpacing grumbling unableto be reachedthe apologiesare the worst firsthe checksno one is watching then mumblessorry lovemy father my childthe gentle personwe knew

/ / /

photos on the manteldad young sharpand vibrant I used to lovefinding cicada shells their thickskins the best ones I’d keepin old matchboxes treasuresartefactsbut I don’t wantan artefact sometimeslife is terrible sometimesthere’s nothing else to it sometimes you watcha game show at your parents’ houseway too loudwhile your dad fadesinto the couch sometimes you seean epic sunset like the whole skyis on fire

/ / /

the cicadasare tryingto consume my mind if the heatdoesn’t get me first the fact this sound is produced by a special muscular structure repeated contractionsand relaxations thatis going to consume my mind that nightI dream of brains and earslong needlesrapid punctures in

and out

/ / /

this place stinks dad says as we enter the buildingfor the support group and to sayotherwisewould be lying I holdhis hand as we listento songs we shouldn’t songs about being halfa man songs about troublesbeing faraway songs I neverwant to hear again his bedsidetable is empty wherethere used to be a pile of books

/ / /

mum pullshis belt on roughly dad cries outin frustrationthis woman whoin this moment he can’t standbut who he needs so desperatelyhe followsher around anxious if she is out of sight this manwho in this moment she can’t standwho she showers cuts his mealsinto pieces reminds him what to dowith a fork but whois the loveof her lifetime who was who she metat sixteen workingreception while hewas a radio engineer charmingas all get