Life in isolation is often a time for thinking out of the box— a desperate time calling for desperate measures.
Our daily exercise is a long walk and the autumn weather has been very considerate until last week. This always happens in our city. We are lulled into complacency by mellow golden days when suddenly a gusty, biting wind blows in bringing cold grey rain. Normally on days like this, I walk in the gym or we go to the National Gallery and wander around some gorgeous art but those options are closed to us now.
Then a brainwave – let’s walk around the Canberra Centre! We hit the Canberra Centre in our trackies and runners – ready to leave if there are crowds of people.
The place is completely deserted— and just like that a shopping mall becomes our walking track. We set off on at a cracking pace and cover every corner of all three levels. I find things I’ve never seen before like the Manager’s Office.
We finish a 5km walk in record time and head home for tea.
It’s pretty eerie inside a usually bustling mall and the scenery on this indoor walk leaves a lot to be desired but needs must…
Tomorrow it will be fine again and we can set off in soft sunshine and enjoy the beautiful view…
© Anita Patel, 2020
Like this:
Like Loading...
Published by anitapatel
Anita Patel is a writer (and retired teacher) who has lived in Canberra since 1982. She is as Australian as a banana paddle pop and a pair of sandy thongs and she is also a part of the Asian diaspora. Her collections of poetry are: 'Petals Fall' published by Recent Work Press in 2022 (https://recentworkpress.com/product/petals-fall) and 'A Common Garment' published by Recent Work Press in 2019 (https://recentworkpress.com/product/a-common-garment/).
In 2019 she collaborated with acclaimed artist, Annie Franklin, to produce 'Heart Stitched' (a story (in paintings and poetry) of the quirky, unexpected and dazzling layers in the natural world).
She has had work published in the Canberra Times, in Conversations (Pandanus Press, ANU), in Block 9, Burley Journal, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, Demos Journal, Mascara Literary Review, Not Very Quiet Journal, Cordite Poetry Review, Backstory Journal, Other Terrain Journal, Pink Cover Zine, FemAsia Magazine, Plumwood Mountain Journal and Eucalypt: a tanka journal, The Australian Poetry Anthology (Vol. 8 2020) and Print Issue 42 of The Blue Nib Journal. Her children’s poems are included in an anthology Pardon My Garden published by Harper Collins. Her poem “Women’s Talk” won the ACT Writers Centre Poetry Prize in 2004 and her poetry was selected for and published in Australian Book Review’s States of Poetry ACT, 2018.
She has performed her work at the Canberra Multicultural Festival, Poetry on the Move Festival, Noted Festival, Floriade Fringe Festival, In Other Words Festival (at Lost in Books, Fairfield), the Queensland Poetry Festival, the National Folk Festival, at Smith’s Alternative, at Word in Hand, Glebe and La Mama Poetica.
Her reviews, “Found in Translation”, on the performances of four Japanese women poets and their translators at Poetry on the Move Festival, 2017 and “No More Silent Waiting”, on the anthology Autonomy edited by Kathy D’Arcy (2018) have been published by Not Very Quiet Journal. She was the guest editor for Issue 2 of Not Very Quiet Journal. View all posts by anitapatel
teapotsandincense 