Scarab amulet with wings

Scarab amulet with wings,
National Gallery for Australia

I hate salad with sultanas in it. Lettuce

is not meant to mix with fruit. You say

tomatoes are a fruit, anyway. You’re right

about this sort of thing. You like: the colour

orange, (being alone), pistachio the word and

the nut. Pollock’s ‘Blue Poles’ in the foyer – once

the most expensive painting in the world – doesn’t

interest you as much as the Egyptian artefacts

upstairs. You pause at ‘Sacrab Amulet With

Wings’. To the Ancient Egyptians, the underworld

was a dangerous place spirits had to traverse

in order to reach sekhet iaru - the paradise of afterlife.

Melbourne is the colour of a Hare Krishna

robe, the warm smell of nga champa. We go

outside into grey light. Down Degraves for flat whites

served in china cups with vintage teaspoons at

a formica table with skittery stools. You make

a house, stacking cubic centimetres of

brown sugar. Look over there, see

the comet trail of glitter in the gutter. 

Annabel Wilson is a writer from Wanaka, whose writing has been published by the Otago Daily Times, Teton Gravity Research, NZSkier, Meniscus Journal, Blackmail Press, Kiwi Diary, Critic, Debate, The Fix and Wanaka Sun. Annabel holds a Masters in Creative Writing through Massey University, is currently working on the prequel to her recently-produced play, No Science To Goodbye, and will be Writer in Residence at the Robert Lord Writer's Cottage for December.